A Chance Encounter
by CGB2010
Summary: A chance encounter with a dark haired man will change the life of a young girl forever. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

A Chance Encounter

Chapter 1

I walked in the door after a long day of school to the sound of the television blaring and laughter in the other room. My little sister Meghan was waiting right inside the door for me and she launched herself into my arms as soon as I closed the door. "I missed you, Abby!" She squealed.

"I missed you too, Meg! How was school today?" I tried to sound equally enthusiastic, but I fell below Meghan's level by a long shot. My sister Meghan was in first grade and I was a junior in high school.

"It was good! We learned about the letter 'b'! Can I show you my workbook?" Meghan was so excited she was jumping up and down. It made me happy to know that she was just as interested in learning as I was.

"Sure, why don't you go get it and we can sit at the table and look at it together?" Meghan was off towards the stairs like a rabbit at my suggestion, and I made my way towards the kitchen to grab a snack while I waited.

Before I could open the refrigerator, I was interrupted by the sound of my father's voice from the other room. "Girl, get in here. We need to talk." I sighed, knowing what was coming, and made my way into the other room. My parents were seated on the couch watching some stupid reality TV show, and they looked over at me when I came in the room. The TV was turned up so loud, I wondered if the neighbors could hear it.

"Yeah?" I looked at my parents with my eyebrows raised. We had passed the point of common courtesy about five years ago.

"Why couldn't you pick your sister up from school today?" My mother asked without taking her eyes off the TV.

"I had some stuff to do after school." I replied. I had been working on homework because it was so hard for me to get it done when I was at home.

My mom rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well it's too much of a hassle for me to pick her up so make sure it doesn't happen again." I had called my mom earlier in the day to say I couldn't pick Meghan up from school, and I knew I would be hearing about it later. I took it upon myself to look after my little sister because I knew my parents wouldn't do it, and I usually walked to her elementary school after my school day to pick her up.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize your schedule was so full." I said sarcastically. My mother did nothing but sit on the couch and watch TV all day, every day. My father worked the morning shift at a convenience store, but he always complained he was too tired to do anything when he got home. The only thing he was good at was ordering me around.

In response to my sarcasm, my father stood up from the couch. "You don't talk to your mother that way, girl. Just do as you're told and shut up about it." He walked towards me, threatening me to challenge him, but I stepped back in retreat.

"Fine. Did you need something else?" I asked, hoping he would say no.

"Yeah, we got another delivery for you." He passed me a paper bag that was sitting on the coffee table. "The address is in the bag. Don't forget to count the money; if it's not all there this time, I'm takin' it outta your hide." I sighed, grabbing the bag from him and looking inside. I looked at the address and realized it was really far away from where we lived.

"This is clear across town!" I argued.

"You better get on that bike of yours and get going then! I expect you back here in time for dinner." My father sneered. I rolled my eyes and went back towards the kitchen so I could tell Meghan I had to leave for a little while. She knew to never come in the room to interrupt us if my parents and I were talking. My general rule for Meghan was that she was never to go near my parents unless she had no other choice.

Meghan was waiting patiently at the table when I walked up. Her face fell when she saw the bag in my hands. She had learned the routine in our house, so she knew I had to leave her. "I'm sorry, Meg. I'll be back in time to make dinner, and then you can show me after we eat."

She nodded and stood up from the table. I gave her a hug, and she followed me out the back door to the garage. "Why don't you play basketball while I'm gone?" I suggested. My parents were watching the TV, so there was nothing for Meghan to do.

"Okay, Abby." Meghan agreed. She grabbed the basketball off the ground and started bouncing away. I grabbed my bike from the garage and took one last look at her, wishing I could stay, and then I pedaled away.

I thought about my unique situation while I pedaled towards the address written on the card inside the bag. My parents had been drug dealers for as long as I could remember, and I had been their delivery girl for about four years now. I frequently wished I had never been involved in their drug scheme, but there was nothing I could do to avoid it. My parents threatened they would throw Meghan and I out on the street if I refused to deliver for them, so I had to do it. I was too busy with schoolwork and taking care of Meghan to get a real part-time job to support her and I, so we were stuck living with my parents until the day came that we could run away. I hoped that once that day came I would have the courage to leave my parents. I was terrified of my father, even though I tried to hide it when I was around him, and I hated to think of what would happen if he knew I was planning to run away with my sister.

When this had all started, I remember asking my parents why they couldn't deliver the drugs themselves, and they had said it was because I was less conspicuous. Police didn't normally look for drugs on 16 year old girls, so I was the perfect person for the job.

At first it had been really hard on me, delivering the drugs to people I didn't know, but eventually I was forced to get the hang of it. I always made sure I was in a public place with plenty of people around to witness in case things got ugly, and my parents always had someone watching me to make sure the deal went down like it was supposed to. At first, I hadn't known they had someone watching me, and one time I made the mistake of bailing out on a deal without getting the money from the person I was selling to. I had paid dearly for that mistake when I got home that night. That was the first time my father ever hit me, and from then on I was a lot more careful. I pedaled faster, knowing I was getting close to my destination. My father had said I was to be back at the house in time for dinner, and I knew what would happen if I was late.

When I arrived at the address written on the card, I realized I was at the entrance to a night club. The club was closed since it was still day time, so I assumed there must be apartments nearby. I walked around the entrance aimlessly until I heard a voice. "Hey, kid! Right over here." I turned around and saw a man with platinum blonde hair beckoning me towards a door to the side of the club. I walked over to him, feeling uncertain about walking into a secluded area. He closed the door when I entered, and I saw we were in a separate living area. There was a door on top of a flight of stairs, and also one underneath a staircase. I assumed this man lived in the bottom apartment because the door was open. I could hear music blaring from inside the apartment and wondered what it was with drug dealers and loud music.

"My name's Sugar." He held his hand out, and I shook it, trying to ignore the stupid nickname.

"Do you have the money?" I asked, choosing not to share my name with him. Sugar laughed.

"Let me see the product first." I opened the bag to show him, but still kept it in my hands. He nodded and pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket. I started counting, knowing exactly how much money he needed to pay me before I handed over the drugs. My stomach dropped when I realized it was $200 short.

"This isn't enough. I can't give you this unless you give me 200 dollars." I looked at Sugar and he shook his head.

"No, this ain't worth that much. This is what you get, take it or leave it." He waited for my response.

"Fine." I threw his money on the ground, and walked away with the drugs. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back before I got too far.

"You little bitch! You take that money and give me the product, or things get ugly." I hesitated, not knowing what to do, and I heard the door on top of the stairs open. A tall man wearing a suit and sunglasses stepped out and made his way down the stairs. As I gaped at the man, not sure if he knew what was going on, Sugar took the opportunity to snatch the bag out of my hands.

"What the hell!" I yelled. Sugar shrugged his shoulders.

"Fair is fair, sweetheart." He laughed and shut his apartment door before I could reply. I debated knocking on the door to ask for the money, but I was unarmed, and he probably would have a weapon if he had to open the door again. I frantically started picking up the bills that were littered on the ground from when I had dropped them. I stopped when I realized the man from the upstairs apartment was staring at me.

"Is there a problem?" He asked.

I shook my head, annoyed that he couldn't mind his own business. "Nope, doesn't look like it." I answered shortly as I scooped up the remaining bills.

"Aren't you a little young to be doing this?" He pointed towards the wad of bills in my hand, and I could tell he knew what I was up to.

"I'm old enough." I responded, trying not to meet his eyes. He looked like he was going to say something else, but I ran off before I could hear it.

As I neared the house, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. I didn't have the amount of money I was supposed to have, and my father would surely notice it. I hated to think about what would happen, and I just hoped he wouldn't do whatever it was with my sister in the room. I parked my bike back in its usual spot in the garage, and when I opened the gate that led to the backyard, my father was sitting on a lawn chair smoking a cigarette. He looked up when he heard the gate, and I fought the urge to run away at the sight of him. "Where's my money?" He asked when I was close enough.

"Here." I replied, handing him the wad of bills I had collected. I tried to step around him so I could go inside the house, but he put a hand on my arm to stop me.

"Not so fast." He said as he counted the bills. I cringed, waiting for his reaction. He looked at me questioningly after he finished counting, and his grip on my arm tightened.

"Can you count?" He asked, talking slowly like I was handicapped.

"Yes, I can; let me explain." I said, trying to force my arm out of his grip. I tried to keep my voice calm, but I was panicking.

"Sure, go ahead. I'd love to hear what happened this time." My father said sarcastically. He took his hand off my arm, but grabbed my shoulders instead and pushed me against the house. Knowing there was no escape, I rattled off my excuse.

"I counted the money like you said, and it was short. I told the guy I wouldn't give him the drugs unless he paid up, and then some guy came out of the apartment next door. The buyer grabbed the bag out of my hand and disappeared, so I just took the money he gave me. I know it's short, but I couldn't hang around to collect the rest of the money because it would have been suspicious." I looked up at my father, and he didn't look any less angry.

"How the hell did he grab the bag out of your hands? I bet you weren't paying attention again. How many times do I have to tell you to use your head?" He slapped me upside the head and waited for my response.

"I'm sorry, I just got nervous when I saw the neighbor." I said lamely.

My father shook my shoulders and slapped me once more for good measure, and then he walked towards the house. "Sorry doesn't cut it, Abby! Don't expect me to be this understanding next time."

He slammed the door, and I stood outside, trying to collect myself a little before I went back in. When I felt calm enough to face my little sister, I went back in the house. She was waiting for me right by the door. I put on a smile when I saw her because I didn't want her to think anything was wrong. "Ready to eat dinner, Megs?" I asked.

"Yes! Can we have ice cream?" She asked with puppy dog eyes.

"No, we'll have spaghetti, but we can have ice cream after dinner. How does that sound?" I grabbed the pot and started filling it with water for the pasta.

"Okay, I guess." Meghan answered. While I cooked, she bombarded me with millions of questions, and I did my best to answer them. I was preoccupied thinking about the man who had interrupted the deal today though. I couldn't stop thinking about how he had automatically known what was happening. He almost acted like he had seen it before and it had really creeped me out. _At least I'll never see him again_, I thought to myself as I set the plates on the table.


	2. Chapter 2

A Chance Encounter

Chapter 2

A couple days after my botched delivery at Sugar's apartment, I found myself with a Saturday all to myself. I had dropped Meghan off at a neighbor's house for a play date, and I was thinking about going to the beach to work on my homework. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Miami, and I didn't want to waste it. I usually used the weekends to catch up on my studying because I was always so busy during the week taking care of my little sister and doing my parents dirty work.

I walked into the house, feeling cheerful as ever, and I was about to walk up the stairs to my room when I heard my father's voice. "Abby, get in here!" I paused with my hand on the railing and groaned. No doubt my father needed me to do something for him. Probably another drug run. As I walked into the TV room, I hoped the address was close so it wouldn't ruin the day I had planned.

"What do you need?" I asked, getting right down to business. My father handed me another bag and I peeked inside for an address, but there was no card; just a bunch of drugs. "Where is it?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Same as the other day. Make sure you get all the dough this time, kid. And get that 200 dollars you didn't get last time." My stomach dropped. I didn't feel comfortable going back to Sugar's apartment after how it had ended last time.

"Dad, I have a lot to do today. Maybe you could just do this one? You're off work today, right?" My father huffed; clearly annoyed at my excuse and that I had asked him to take care of it himself.

"Bullshit you have a lot to do. You're not getting out of this one, girl. I got stuff to do today, so you better get your ass out of this house in ten seconds, or you'll be sorry." He stepped towards me, threatening me to object again.

"Can I take the car?" I asked hopefully, knowing I was pushing the limits.

"Jesus, you're so needy! I need to use the car, so that bike of yours should be just fine." He shoved me towards the back door, and it slammed open when I ran into it. I scowled as I walked towards the garage to grab my bike. What was the point of having a driver's license if I could never use it? My parents only owned one car, and I was only allowed to use it when I had to drive my sister different places. My parents could never be bothered to pick Meghan up from school or her various play dates, so I was always given the task.

I thought about my sister as I rode the familiar route towards Sugar's apartment. My parents seldom gave her any attention, so I felt like it was my job to make up for that by loving her as much as I possibly could. I sometimes wondered why my parents even bothered having kids. They must have loved us at some point, but now that love was muted by the constant need for more drug money. I wished I had the courage to voice my concerns to my parents about my little sister growing up without them having a care in the world about her, but I just couldn't bring myself to say it. All I could do was count down the days until I turned 18 and could run away with Meghan for good. I doubt my parents would miss my little sister when we were gone, but I knew we would have to go far away. They wouldn't be so willing to lose their drug runner, and I frequently thought about the horrible things that would happen if they were to ever find us.

I continued to fantasize about a different life that was not so far away until I arrived at the entrance to the apartment. I parked my bike against the wall and grabbed the drugs, and pushed open the gate towards the apartments. I thought it was strange that Sugar wasn't waiting for me like he did last time, so I stood by the staircase for a few minutes before I decided to knock on his door. There was no way I could go home this time without the correct amount of money.

I banged on the door for a few minutes before I started to get worried. Sugar didn't appear to be home, and it looked like I would be out of luck. I stepped away from the door so I could think about a plan of action, and then I heard the door to the upstairs apartment open. The man I had seen the other day stepped out of the apartment, and my heart dropped. I debated running away, but then I thought he might know where Sugar had disappeared to.

"Looking for your friend?" The man asked when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah, have you seen him?" I looked at him hopefully. If I couldn't locate Sugar, I would be in a world of trouble with my father.

"Yeah… He's not around anymore." The man replied evasively. He was staring at the bag in my hands, and I could feel my face getting red.

"Shit, do you know where he is? It's really important that I give this to him." I tried not to sound desperate, but I had no idea what to do. I had a bag of drugs, and no money to show for it.

The man looked at me for a few seconds before he responded. "I kicked your friend out because he was causing some trouble, and I need my privacy. You seem pretty torn up about this; was Sugar really your friend?" He was probing me for information and I saw right through him.

Before I could reply, I felt my cell phone ringing in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw it was my dad calling. The man watched me as I answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Abby, what the hell are you doing in there?" He spoke loudly into the phone, and I knew the person watching the deal must have called him.

"He's not here, so I didn't get anything." I replied, knowing my father was ready to erupt at any second.

"He's not there?" My father mocked. "Well he called in his order a few hours ago, so where could he be?" He was talking so loud, I was sure the man could hear everything.

"I don't know; this isn't my fault!" I insisted.

"Whatever, you better be back at the house in 45 minutes." My father said ominously before hanging up the phone. I flipped my phone shut, trying to keep my face even. I didn't want to give it away to this man that I was terrified.

"I have to go now, thanks for your help." I said shortly. I walked towards the gate, but the man's voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Look, I can tell you're in some kind of trouble because of this, and I might have caused some of it. Do you need help?" He asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

I looked at him skeptically. "I don't even know who you are." I responded.

"My name is Michael Westen, and I'm someone who can help you." Then he pointed towards the brown paper bag. "I think we both know you shouldn't be doing this."

"Yeah, well I don't have a choice. Thanks for the offer, though." I said. I pushed the gate open and went to grab my bike. Michael Westen followed me out, and had something else to say before I pedaled away.

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where I live. I didn't catch your name, by the way." He looked up at me, and I debated with myself before I answered.

"Abby Gorham." I replied. He nodded, and I pedaled away before he could say anything else. As I raced towards home, knowing I probably wouldn't even make it back in 45 minutes, I thought about Michael Westen. He seemed trustworthy, but I couldn't risk talking to him when I knew there was someone watching me. How could he possibly help me? I was stuck with this life, and there was nothing he could do to change that. I pushed our conversation to the back of my mind and focused on getting home as fast as possible.

After I parked my bike in the garage, I walked towards the house and came in through the back door. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table when I walked in, and my father shot up as soon as he saw me. He ripped the bag out of my hands and threw it on the table where my mom was sitting, and then he grabbed me by the hair and pulled me towards the TV room. "What was I supposed to do, dad? He wasn't there!" I tried to explain as he threw me onto the floor. I tried to get up so I wouldn't be so vulnerable, but he kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

"He probably stood us up because of what you did last time! Damn it, Abby! We needed that money!" My father roared. I coughed, not being able to catch my breath.

"I didn't do anything wrong last time! He didn't have enough money, so I said he couldn't have the drugs!" My father pulled me off the ground and shook me by the shoulders.

"I don't wanna hear your excuses, I just want my money!" He pushed me away from him and stormed out of the room after that.

I could hear my parents discussing what they were going to do next as I walked up the stairs to my room, and I just didn't care. I hated being blamed for things that were out of my control, and I just wanted this whole situation to end.

The rest of the weekend went by without incident. I spent most of Sunday helping Meghan out with her homework, and then playing basketball outside with her after she was done. I always tried to keep Meghan active because I didn't want the TV to dominate her life as it did with so many other little kids these days. I also spent a lot of time thinking about the offer Michael Westen had given me. He had told me that he was someone who could help, but could I really trust him? My parents always kept a close eye on me, so it would be really hard to go behind their backs if I decided to ask him for help.

I made my final decision on Monday after school. Meghan had a kid's after school cooking class three days a week and I usually sat outside and waited for her. Today, I decided I would make another trip to the night club and see if Michael Westen could help me while she was in her class. As soon as the bell rang, I bolted out of school and high-tailed it back to the night club. The whole way there, I felt jittery, like there was someone watching me, but I just shook it off for nerves. My parents generally didn't have people watching me at all times, and today wasn't any different.

Praying that he was in his apartment, I walked up the staircase and knocked on the door. He opened it after a few seconds and raised his eyebrows when he saw me. "You're back."

"Looks like it. Is the offer to help still on the table?" I asked, not being able to look him in the eyes.

He gestured inside the loft with this hand. "Looks like it." He responded with a smile. I walked in and took a look at his apartment. It was sparingly furnished; there was a mattress on the floor and a couple chairs, but that was about it. I think Mr. Westen could tell I was looking around for more stuff. "I haven't been in town very long, so that's why the place looks like this."

"Huh. Listen, Mr. Westen, I really don't think you can help me." I put my thoughts on the table right away. He had no idea about the extent of my situation.

He gestured awkwardly towards one of the chairs and I sat down. "Call me Michael, and you're Abby, right?" I nodded and he continued. "Just tell me what's going on. I can't help you unless I know your story."

I thought for a second, not sure where to start. "My parents have been selling drugs for as long as I can remember. I was never involved in any part of their business until a few years ago when my father thought it would be a good idea for me to do their drug runs. I'm less conspicuous to the police, so I'm the perfect match. I would have run away years ago, but I can't because of my little sister, Meghan. I don't have enough money to support myself, let alone her, so it's tough. Plus, my parents watch me like hawks, so I would have a hard time sneaking off with Meghan." I paused and waited for questions.

"Can't you just tell your parents you don't want to be involved?" Michael asked. He was leaning on the counter in the kitchen.

"My parents have made it very clear that if I don't do this, they'll kick my sister and me out on the street and we have nowhere to go. I also do this because I know my parents will treat my sister well if I follow their rules. I can't watch Meghan all the time, so I need to know she is safe with my parents when I'm not around." I ran a hand through my hair nervously, regretting that I was telling this man I barely knew everything about my life.

Michael walked over from the counter and sat down in a chair next to me. "What about you? Do you feel safe around your parents?"

I knew where this was going, so I tried to switch the subject. "It doesn't matter what I feel; as long as Meghan is safe."

Michael raised his eyebrows. "I think we both know you're doing this as much for yourself as for your little sister."

I sighed, knowing he was right. "My dad has a lot of anger issues, and sometimes he takes it out on me. It's not like I can't handle it though, and I know he wouldn't touch Meghan."

Michael's face was expressionless. "I have no doubts that you can 'handle' whatever your father throws at you, but that doesn't mean you should have to."

I almost rolled my eyes, but I stopped myself. "Well, what can I do? What can you do for that matter?" I stood up and started pacing the room to distract myself.

"Well for starters, you just keep doing what you're doing to help your sister, and I'll take care of the rest." Michael had a determined look in his eyes, but I was still skeptical.

"So you're gonna help us?" I asked, not being able to believe it.

Michael smiled, "Yes, I'll see what I can do. I need to know a few more things before we get started though."

I smiled, desperately trying to contain my excitement, but knowing that this was the most hopeful I'd felt in years. "Fire away, but I only have about fifteen minutes before I have to go pick Meghan up from her after school cooking class." I said. In the short time I had, we began to hash out a plan.


	3. Chapter 3

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 3

As I walked back to my house after picking Meghan up from her cooking class, I thought about what Michael and I had talked about. After Michael and I had gone through what my parents and my day usually consisted of, he said he would have to follow my parents around for at least a couple days so he could be sure of what their schedules were. He said he would be asking a few of his associates to help out and I said that was fine.

Michael told me that my only job for the next couple days was to act normal and go on with my routine, including doing any drug runs that my parents would make me do. He told me to meet him on Wednesday after school to discuss what the plan would be, and I felt like that was years away. I couldn't help but feel like my parents were on to me, even though I knew they hadn't had anyone following me earlier today. "What are you thinking about, Abby?" Meghan asked. She was skipping along on the sidewalk in front of me.

"Nothing, Meg. I'm just worried about school. How was your cooking class?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Great! We learned how to make ants on a log! Can I explain it to you?" She asked, walking back towards me and taking my hand.

"I'd love to hear how to make ants on a log!" I replied. The rest of the walk home, Meghan went on to tell me all about how to make ants on a log and I was content just listening to her tell me what she learned. Before I knew it we were walking up the front steps to the house and I was nervous all over again. When I opened the door, Meghan ran in before me and went to put her backpack in the kitchen. My father was sitting by the kitchen table talking with my mother, and their conversation stopped when Meghan ran into the kitchen.

"Where have you two been?" My mother asked. It was amazing to me that my parents had almost no concept of our schedules.

"Meg had her cooking class after school today, so I waited for her and then we walked home." I responded, walking into the kitchen.

"You just sat there and waited for her?" My father asked, his eyebrows raised. My hands immediately started to shake and I went on the defensive. There was no way he could know where I was, right? I walked towards the fridge to get the pitcher of iced tea.

"Well yeah, kind of. I did some homework and stuff too…" I trailed off, not meeting his eyes. If I looked at him, he would know. I poured myself and Meghan a glass of iced tea and returned the pitcher to the fridge. Luckily Meghan interrupted before my father could respond.

"We made ants on a log today! Can I show you how to do it?" She asked my parents with a smile on her face.

"Not right now, Meghan." My father answered, shaking her off. Meghan's face fell and she went into the TV room with her glass of iced tea. My father turned back to me when she left the room. "What are you going to do tonight?" He asked. This conversation was very strange and I just wanted to leave the room. My parents and I never talked like this.

"Probably just homework. Are there any plans for dinner?" I asked, looking at my mother. We didn't usually eat dinner together, but I figured I might as well ask.

"No, you're on your own." My mother replied, and then added. "Make sure your sister eats too." I almost rolled my eyes at that comment but I just nodded and walked away feeling relieved that my parents didn't seem to suspect anything.

Before I knew it, Tuesday had passed without any problems and I was being woken up by the loud voice of my father on Wednesday. "Abby, what the hell? It's 8:00 already, why are you still here?" I shot up in bed when I heard his voice and the sound of his boots crashing up the stairs on his way to my room. _Why didn't my alarm go off?_ I wondered. I looked at my phone, and sure enough, it was dead. I had done a few deliveries last night and hadn't gotten pack to the house till after 2. I had been too tired to remember to charge my phone and now I had to deal with my father. Before I could react, he burst into the room and pushed me into my dresser. I gritted my teeth when the handles of my dresser dug into my back. I could hear my sister crying downstairs and I instantly felt terrible for making such a stupid mistake.

"Dad, I'm up! I'm sorry my alarm didn't go off." I said, putting my hands up to avoid further attack.

My father shook his head and grabbed me by the back of the neck. "You're sister is downstairs crying because she's late to school and now I have to drive you there and explain to the school why you're late!" He pushed me away and walked out of the room. "You better be ready and in the car in five minutes, girl!" He said ominously on his way down the stairs. I scrambled to get ready, wiping a few tears off my face while I dressed, and was downstairs in three minutes. Meghan was still crying when I saw her sitting on the couch in the TV room. She ran up to me when she saw me and gave me a hug.

"Daddy was mad at you!" She said, her face in my shirt.

"It's fine, Meg, let's go to school now." I said, hoping she would stop crying. If she didn't stop, I might start up again too.

"I don't wanna go, Abby!" She exclaimed and started sobbing again. My dad honked the horn from the car outside and I scooped Meghan into my arms and carried her outside to the car. She was still crying on the way to her school and I knew it was driving my father nuts.

"Stop crying, Meghan!" He raised his voice to her, and I looked at him from the front seat.

"Don't yell at her, she's upset because of you!" I exclaimed. My father gave me a murderous look and I stared out the window, determined not to meet his glare.

"Not another word out of you girl if you know what's good for you!" I pretended to ignore him, and by the time we got to her school, Meghan had stopped crying. "I'm gonna take her in and explain to the school. You're on your own."

I looked at Meghan. "Remember you're going home with Alexis today, Meg. I'll see you later, okay?" I had arranged a play date for Meghan yesterday with one of the girls in her class. She nodded and her and my father began walking towards her school. I walked as fast as I could, and I arrived to my school at 8:30, which was a half hour late. I managed to get off with just a warning and not to be late again in the principal's office, and then I was off to class.

Before I knew it, the last period was over and it was time to head to Michael's place so we could talk about a plan. I was nervous as I exited the school, and I half expected to see my father waiting for me. After what had happened this morning, coming home tonight would not be fun. I looked around the front entrance, but he was nowhere to be seen thankfully. I knew Michael had probably been watching my house, and I prayed he hadn't seen anything that happened this morning. As I walked towards Michael's place, I thought about what it would be like to be rid of my parents. I wouldn't have to worry about getting killed on a drug run, or being afraid in my own home. Most of all, I wouldn't need to worry about Meghan. She would grow up away from the environment of my parent's house, and I would be grateful for that.

What if none of this worked though? Michael said he would be able to help me, but what if he had changed his mind after seeing my screwed up life? I felt like I might if I were in his position. I put the negative thoughts out of my head as I climbed the stairs leading to the apartment Michael lived in. I knocked on the door, and was surprised when a woman answered the door. She was very pretty and had long brown hair. I was even more surprised when she started talking because she had an Irish accent. "You must be Abby. Come on in, my name is Fiona." She held out her hand and I shook it.

"Nice to meet you." I replied, looking around the apartment. Michael was standing by the fridge eating a yogurt, and there was another man sitting on a barstool drinking a beer. He waved when we made eye contact.

"I'm Sam, it's nice to meet you young lady." He smiled at me and I smiled back. Michael looked at me and gestured towards the empty barstool.

"Take a seat, Abby. We need to talk." I sat on the seat, instantly nervous about what he was going to say. Fiona stood next to him on the other side of the counter and he began. "We've been watching your parents for a few days around the clock, and we all agree the first thing we need to do is get you and your little sister out of that house." My jaw dropped and I shook my head.

"We can't do that, they would know what was going on if we just left. They would find us!" I felt close to panic, and Michael put his hands up.

"There are a lot of dangerous things going on at your house right now, and it would be best if you weren't living there while we work things out. We have a plan that will make it easy for you to leave the house without them going after you." They all stared at me while I thought it over. I truly felt that if we just left the house, my parents would come looking for us, and they would find us.

"What about just my sister leaving? She could stay at a friend's house for a couple nights until this is all over. I can handle myself a lot easier if she's not in the house." Sam cut in before Michael could respond.

"We don't want something to happen like it did this morning, Abby." So they did know about my alarm clock mishap.

"That was my fault! I'll be more careful next time." I replied, looking at the ground. I was embarrassed that they'd seen my father pushing me around.

Michael looked at me sharply. "Don't blame yourself for your father's temper, Abby. He should never have an excuse to lay a hand on you. That house isn't safe for either you or your sister, and I think you know that."

I sighed and put my elbows on the table and then rested my head in my hands. "Fine, but where are we going to go? And what about school? We can't just miss without having a reason." Fiona and Sam looked at Michael and shrugged.

"Do you have a break coming up?" He asked.

"Well, spring break is next week. We could wait till Friday and then leave. Will this take more than a week?" I asked, looking at the three of them.

Fiona shook her head. "Oh, this won't take long at all, Abby. I have some quick and easy solutions to your problem. First, we could—" Michael cut her off.

"Not now, Fi. I think that should work if you can wait a few more days. You'll leave your house on Friday afternoon with your sister, and you'll be staying at my mom's house. We'll make sure you aren't followed, and I promise you'll be safe." I could tell Michael didn't want to share the plan on how they would get my parents to leave us alone. I would just have to trust him.

"How are we supposed to leave our house? Just walk out?" I asked, curious about how we would pull that off.

Michael thought about that for a second. "Do you know of anything that annoys your parents enough that they would tell you to leave the house if you did it?" I thought about this for a second, and then it dawned on me.

"They hate it when my sister cries. My dad yelled at her this morning for it. I'm sure if she did it for long enough, they would want her to leave the house." Michael nodded.

"Do you think she could do it without getting upset?" He asked.

"Well, if I told her to do it for me, she would do it. Should I tell her we're going to run away?" I asked, hoping he would say yes.

"Well, that'll have to work then. You can tell her, but wait till Friday, so she doesn't have a lot of time to tell someone about it and ruin the plan." I nodded and sighed, already nervous about actually leaving the house. I had thought about it for years, and now it was actually going to happen.

"This isn't easy, Abby. You've already gotten through the hard part by admitting you needed help. After you leave the house, I promise you it won't be long before your parents are out of your life forever. That's what you want, right?" Michael asked. I shrugged and looked up at him.

"Of course it is, I just wish it wouldn't have been like this." I looked at the ground again, feeling the tears coming.

Sam patted my shoulder. "You've been dealt a tough hand, kid." I shook my head and smiled at him.

After hashing out what would happen on Friday for another hour or so, I was on my way back home, feeling nervous but excited that we were going to be out of the house forever on Friday. I had a plan for the first time in years, and I was ready.


	4. Chapter 4

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 4

When I got home from school on Thursday, there was a message from Michael waiting for me in the hiding place we had discussed earlier in the week (the bushes right by the front door). I saw it out of the corner of my eye when Meghan and I were walking into the house and I had to figure out a way to discreetly pick it up so nobody would notice. I held the front door open for Meghan and after she walked in, after sneaking a quick glance inside to check for my parents, I snagged the note out of the bushes and put it in my pocket. After situating Meghan at the kitchen table with a snack and making sure she started on her workbook I snuck upstairs so I could read the note. My parents were both in the TV room and didn't even acknowledge us when we walked in the door.

Once safely in my room I opened the note and it read, _phone in backyard, look in the watering can_. I rolled my eyes at the note, knowing I would have to sneak outside to get the phone. I debated going outside right at that moment to get the phone, but then I decided I would wait till my parents went to bed before going outside to get it. I couldn't risk them seeing me snooping around outside from the TV room. This plan was way too carefully thought out to make a stupid mistake at the last minute.

After a long night of waiting, I finally heard my parents heading for their bedroom around midnight. I waited for another half hour just to be safe and then headed downstairs, being careful to avoid the spots on our floors that creaked. I opened the back door as quietly as possible and crept outside in the dark to the watering can that we never used, and grabbed the phone that was inside. I opened the phone and saw I had a text from Michael which read _call me, we need to talk about tomorrow_. I decided I would have to walk about a block away from the house so I could safely make a call. I walked briskly and once I felt like I was far enough away from the house, I called Michael. He answered on the first ring. "Abby? Everything okay?" He sounded worried.

"Everything is fine, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting but I had to wait till my parents were asleep. What about tomorrow?" I hoped the plan was still on.

"That's fine, I'm just glad everything is okay. I just wanted to remind you that the plan begins at 5:00pm tomorrow, and you meet me at the corner of Ridge and Greenleaf at 5:15. If something changes, you need to contact me ASAP using this phone, okay?" My stomach was doing flip flops at the thought of tomorrow, but I took a deep breath and tried to sound confident when I responded.

"Okay, I will. Anything else?" I asked, wanting desperately to get back to the house.

"No, just remember to stay calm and everything will be alright. Just stick to the plan, Abby." Michael reassured me.

"Right, stick to the plan. Okay, I should get back to the house, but I'll keep this phone on me at all times." I replied, already walking towards my house.

"Okay, see you tomorrow. Good Luck."

"Thanks, Michael." I hung up the phone and walked quickly back towards the house, putting the phone in my back pocket. When I opened the back door, I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw my father staring right at me.

"Where the hell have you been?" He asked. He was wearing his pajamas and it looked like he had come downstairs to get some water.

I thought quickly and replied, "I just went for a walk because I couldn't sleep. I have this huge math test tomorrow."

My father shook his head. "Jesus, Abby, it's past midnight! Don't walk outside by yourself at night again." He gave me a hard look and I just nodded and scampered up the stairs. I collapsed on my bed when I got into my room and I could hear the sound of my heart racing in the silence. I rolled over in bed, feeling like I had dodged a huge bullet and began a long, sleepless night.

I woke up very early on Friday morning and I couldn't sit still, so I went downstairs and began making pancakes for breakfast. I wished I could get some things ready for later with all the time I had before school, but I couldn't for fear of tipping off my parents. Everything would have to be done in the time we got home from school, and I was on the verge of panic at the thought of it. What made my panic worse was the fact that I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep the whole week. I felt like I was dead on my feet, and I had the whole day ahead of me. After I took the last pancake off the griddle, I sat down on the table and waited for Meghan to come down to eat. Sure enough, she was downstairs five minutes later, and her constant chatter helped take my mind off the stress of the day.

When we were walking to school, I wanted so badly to tell her about what she had to do later today, but I didn't want her to have to worry about it the whole day. I would do all the worrying for her. When we got her school, I turned to Meghan and reminded her for the thousandth time, "Make sure you meet me right here after school, okay Meg?"

She rolled her eyes and replied, "That's like the tenth time you said that, Abby! We do this every day!" I forced a laugh at her comment.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to remind you. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay, bye!" Meghan waved and ran towards her school. Once I saw she was inside, I walked to my school and began the long day, hoping it would go by quickly.

After nine periods that seemed about ten times longer than usual, the day was finally over. After a quick trip to my locker and yet another check to make sure the phone Michael had given me was in my back pocket, I ran out of the school, and made my way through the crowd of people to Meghan's school. When I approached the front entrance, my stomach dropped when I realized Meghan wasn't waiting outside for me. Her school would have ended about ten minutes ago, so I couldn't think of a reason why she wouldn't be ready for me. After a couple minutes of pacing around the front entrance, I decided to sit on a bench and wait. I felt like I was making the other parents nervous with my frantic walking. I felt powerless as I sat waiting for Meghan, and about ten minutes later, I saw her run out of the school. She was wearing a party hat and carrying what looked like a bag of goodies. Of course she had no idea what a hurry we were in because I hadn't told her about the plan yet. She ran up to me with a big smile on her face and gave me a huge hug. "Spring break! We had a party in my class and I got this hat and this bag of candy! Do you want some, Abby?" She exclaimed. The parents around us laughed and I smiled back.

"Not right now, let's get going, Meg." I replied. I grabbed her hand and we started walking towards our house. I checked my watch and realized it was 4:00 already, and I had hoped to be home by now. I would probably have to text Michael and change the meeting time, because there was no way we would make it to the meeting spot at 5:15. We had about a twenty minute walk ahead of us, and I would have to explain the plan to Meghan very quickly. Once we were far enough away, I started talking. "Meg, I need to tell you something very important, and I need you to listen very carefully, okay?"

"Okay, Abby." She replied in a serious tone. She took her party hat off and stuck it in her goodie bag.

I paused for a second, not knowing where to start, and then I jumped right in. "What do you think about mommy and daddy, Meg?"

Meghan grimaced. "I think they're mean. When we talk about our mommies and daddies in school, the teachers always say nice things, but mommy and daddy aren't nice. Daddy is mean to you, Abby."

"That's right, he is mean to me, Meghan. What you don't know is that mommy and daddy are involved in some bad things."

Meghan interrupted me. "Like when they make you take those brown bags? Are those bad things?" She asked.

"Yes, those are bad things, and they could get me in trouble. The only way to solve this problem is to leave mommy and daddy, Meg. Would you be okay if mommy and daddy weren't around?" I prayed she would say she would be okay. I had been worried about this the whole week. If Meghan said she didn't want to leave, then I couldn't force her.

Meghan shrugged. "Only if you were with me, Abby. I wouldn't miss them if you were here." I could tell Meghan didn't understand the question, but at least I knew she would be willing to walk out the door with me. She would understand in time, but I didn't want to overload her right this moment.

"I will be with you, Meg! What would you say if I told you we were leaving today?" Meghan looked at me questioningly.

"Are we going on vacation?"

"Kind of, Meg. The most important thing is that mom and dad don't know we're leaving today. To do that I'm going to need your help." I looked at Meghan and she looked at me. She looked shocked that I was asking for her to help.

"What can I do? I wanna help!" She waited for me to respond.

"What's the one thing you do that makes mom and dad mad, Meg?" I asked, hoping she knew the answer.

She looked at the ground, but kept walking. "They don't like it when I cry."

"That's right, Meg. When we get back to the house, I need to get some things done and you stay right by my side the whole time. When I say so, I need you to start crying, okay? Let's pretend that you want to go to the park, but I won't take you, okay?" I hoped she understood me.

"So all I have to do is cry? I don't want to be mad at you, Abby."

I stopped walking and put my hands on her shoulders. "I promise you don't have to be mad at me, okay? This is just pretend, Meg. Do you think you can do this?"

She nodded. "I can do it. I just wait till you tell me to start, right?"

"Right, and remember, mom and dad can't know anything about us leaving, okay?" I looked at her seriously and she nodded. By now we were about two blocks away from the house, and I was satisfied that this stage of the plan was complete but I knew we were running late. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the house, and when we walked in the door, I saw my parents were sitting in the kitchen. I wanted to just take Meghan and go up to my room, but I knew I had to act like everything was normal. We walked into the kitchen, and Meghan put her bag on the table. "Hi." I said when I walked in.

"Hi girls." My dad replied. We stood in an awkward silence for a few minutes, and the whole time I just wanted to bolt up to my room.

I broke the silence when I couldn't take it anymore. "I'm gonna go upstairs and clean up." My parents nodded and I turned to leave the kitchen. I was glad when Meghan followed me. When we got up to my room, I realized it was 4:45, leaving me only 15 minutes to get ready. I pulled out the phone that Michael had given me and texted him, _running late, need more time_. While I waited for Michael to respond, I frantically started emptying my backpack of all my books, and started packing clothes I would need for the next week or so. I packed light because I knew Meghan would need room for her stuff too and when I was done packing my stuff, I moved into Meghan's room and started packing her clothes for the week. Michael texted me back a couple minutes later and it read, _meet me at 5:30, same place_. I felt relieved I had the extra 15 minutes and I continued packing my bag while Meghan waited patiently on my bed. I made sure not to pack the bag too much because it still had to look like my books were in there and not anything extra. Once the bag was packed, I cleaned both of our rooms, so it would be harder for my parents to realize things were missing.

When I was finished with everything, it was 5:10, so I was right on schedule. Meghan and I sat on my bed and I waited a couple minutes before I told her I wanted her to start crying. This was the most crucial part of the plan, and my heart was racing. I could feel that I was utterly exhausted, but we were almost done. It didn't take long before the tears started coming, and we headed downstairs. I motioned for Meghan to say something, and like we had talked about, she shouted, "Why can't we go, Abby?"

She started crying louder, and I replied, "Because I don't want to, Meghan! We'll go tomorrow."

Meghan wailed some more before she responded. She was doing an excellent job. "I wanna go now though!" I heard my dad storm into the hallway from the TV room.

"What's the problem?" He shouted over Meghan's sobbing.

"She wants to go to the park, but I don't want to. I have to go to the library right now." I replied with some attitude. I knew I needed to seem reluctant in order pull this off. My tone of voice made my father angrier.

"Who cares if you don't want to! I don't wanna listen to her cry because you're too lazy, Abby!" My father stepped towards me, and Meghan cried louder, clearly scared he would hit me.

"I wanna go now!" She sobbed.

"Stop crying!" My father shouted. My sister continued and he grabbed me by the arm and shook me. "I can't listen to this shit. Get out of this house in the next ten seconds, or you'll really make me mad."

I twisted my arm out of his grasp and rolled my eyes. "Fine! I'll just take her to the park and forget about whatever I needed to do." I replied sarcastically. Meghan was still sniffling and rubbing her nose, but my father still didn't seem satisfied.

"Gimme your bag, I'll just put it in your room because you won't need it at the park." My father looked skeptically at my loaded bag. My stomach dropped and I thought of a response.

"I'm behind on some stuff so I'll just do homework at the park. Why do you care?" I asked, feeling braver than I had felt in a long time.

My father gave me a murderous look and Meghan ran out the door, "Let's go!" She shouted. Before I could run out the door, my father grabbed my arm again and pulled me towards him.

"I want you back here at 6 because you have errands to run, girl." I nodded and he pushed me violently out the door. I tripped on the doorstep and fell on my butt, twisting my ankle in the process. He looked down at me and added, "And stop talking back to me. I won't tolerate your attitude." He slammed the front door in my face.

I shakily stood up and my ankle felt horrible when I put my weight on it, but we had to walk to the meeting spot, and we only had about ten minutes. Meghan had a concerned look on her face as she watched me descend the front steps and walk towards her, but I just smiled and said I was fine. I checked frequently when we were walking, but it didn't appear that my father had followed us. I thanked God that I didn't have to go back to the house and deal with my father after what I said.

"You did so great, Meg! Thank you so much for your help!" I tried to be enthusiastic, but my adrenaline was fading, and I was getting very tired. My sleepless nights combined with today's excitement were catching up to me. Plus, my ankle was hurting me, and I was limping pretty badly. We only had a few block to go before we made it to Michael's car and I was thankful.

"You're welcome, Abby. You made daddy real mad and I was scared. We aren't going back for a while right?" She looked at me hopefully and I nodded.

"We won't be back for a while, Meg, so don't worry about it, okay? We're going to meet a friend of mine right now, and his name is Michael. He's going to help us out for a little while." I smiled at Meghan and she nodded.

When we arrived at the meeting spot, Michael was waiting by a black car. He looked relieved when he spotted us, but then he frowned when he saw me limping. "What happened?" He asked me.

"I'm fine, Michael, this is my sister Meghan." I gestured to Meghan and she shyly waved.

"Hi, Meghan, it's nice to finally meet you." She smiled and grabbed my hand, clearly nervous. We got in the car and Michael was staring at me when I got in the front seat. "You look terrible, Abby. Are you alright?" He must have been talking about the giant bags under my eyes and my obvious limp.

"Fine, just tired." I replied, and then added, "My dad pushed me out the door and I fell on my ankle weird."

Michael nodded. "I'll take a look at it when we get to the house, alright?" I nodded and Michael began driving. Meghan and Michael were silent on the way to his mother's house, and the silence along with the drive made me very sleepy. I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder and I shot up from the seat.

"Take it easy!" Michael looked at me like I was crazy.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." I replied sheepishly. Michael waved me off and we made our way into the house. My ankle had swelled during the drive, and I was limping worse now. Michael grabbed my arm so he could help me into the house and I nodded to say thanks. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, but I knew it would be rude to just leave Meghan alone with Michael's mother. Meghan held my hand, and before we even opened the door, a woman with white spiky hair opened the door.

"Oh, Michael! I'm so glad you're here! This must be Abigail and Meghan, right?" She smiled at us, and I nodded.

"Hello, Mrs. Westen. I'm Abby and this is my sister Meghan. Thank you so much for letting us stay in your home." I felt awkward meeting Mrs. Westen for the first time knowing we would be living with her for a little while.

"Oh, call me Maddie, honey! What happened to you?" She stared at my bruising ankle and I blushed.

"It's nothing." I mumbled, too embarrassed to explain what happened. Mrs. Westen nodded and we walked into the house. While Mrs. Westen set up a puzzle for Meghan to do, Michael sat me down on the couch.

"Let's take a look at that ankle." I nodded and untied my shoe and gently pulled it off. Michael examined my ankle, and while it hurt, I didn't think it was broken.

"Do you know a lot about this stuff?" I asked him. He looked like he knew what he was doing.

"Well, I learned a lot about medicine with my old job. I'm pretty sure it's not broken, but we should still put some ice on it to get the swelling down. Sound good?" I nodded and he went to the kitchen to get a bag of ice. I watched Meghan work on her puzzle while I waited, but then I heard Michael and Mrs. Westen in the kitchen.

"I couldn't vacuum for our guests because something is wrong with mine." Mrs. Westen said accusingly.

"You say that like I had something to do with it Ma. That vacuum is over thirty years old that's why it doesn't work." Michael fired back. I smiled at the ridiculousness of their argument.

"Well it worked perfectly fine, just like my old coffee maker you made me get rid of last week." Mrs. Westen said.

"Ma, this house is full of things that don't work. You have to get rid of stuff that doesn't work anymore! That coffee maker…" I tried to tune Michael out because it sounded like they would be at it for a while. I was so tired I decided to lie down on the couch and rest my eyes. I didn't mean to fall asleep, but within a few minutes I was dead to the world.


	5. Chapter 5

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 5

When I woke up I immediately felt disoriented. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, trying to remember what had happened last night. I had fallen asleep on the couch the night before, but now I was sitting in a bed in what appeared to be a boy's bedroom. _How did I get here?_ I wondered as I thought more about yesterday. All the different things that had happened yesterday came flooding back into my head, and then I remembered what had happened to my ankle. I pulled back the covers to take a look at it and saw that it was wrapped up in an ace bandage. I shook my head, thinking I didn't even remember getting the ice last night and then I decided to get out of bed.

After I used the bathroom, it dawned on me that I had left Meghan alone last night. I instantly felt terrible, and I hoped she wasn't any trouble for Mrs. Westen. I hobbled out of the bathroom and made my way down the hallway and down the stairs. I could hear my little sister laughing in the kitchen, and I smiled. I was glad she was adjusting well to being away from home. When I walked in, I saw Mrs. Westen was helping Meghan make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It looked like she had let Meg spread the peanut butter, and she seemed to have gotten it all over her hands. Mrs. Westen looked up when she saw me. "Hi, sweetie! It's nice to see you finally out of bed!"

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It's 12:30, you're just in time for lunch. Want a peanut butter and jelly?" I smiled as I watched Meghan licking the peanut butter off her hands.

"Sure that sounds good. Meg, I think you got it all, why don't you wash your hands?" I watched as Mrs. Westen made my sandwich and then set it on a plate. After she handed it to me, I went to the table and sat with Meghan while she ate. "Gosh, I don't even remember falling asleep last night. How did I get upstairs?"

Mrs. Westen smiled. "Well, you fell asleep on the couch before Michael even brought the ice back, so we just wrapped your foot and Michael carried you upstairs to his old bedroom where it was more quiet. You were out like a light and didn't even stir." She laughed as she lit her cigarette. Mrs. Westen was clearly a chain smoker.

"Oh, got it." I replied. I was mortified that Michael had carried me up the stairs last night, and even more annoyed with myself that I didn't even wake up. I hoped I wasn't too heavy for him. While we ate lunch, Mrs. Westen sat next to us and seemed to be debating what she was going to say. I pretended not to notice and waited for her to speak.

"Is your ankle feeling better? It looked pretty painful last night." Right away, I knew she probably had been told what happened.

"Yeah, it feels much better today. Did Michael tell you what happened?" I asked, wondering if she really knew it was my father.

Mrs. Westen smiled sadly. "He might have mentioned something." She left it at that and I felt myself turning red. I think she could tell I was embarrassed because she added, "You have nothing to be ashamed of, honey. You know, you and Michael aren't that much different; you should ask him about it sometime." I nodded, not wanting to talk about my father anymore, and looked over at Meghan. She was playing with her sandwich crusts and humming to herself. I pushed her hair off her face and she looked up at me and smiled. I wished I could forget about how my father treated me just like Meghan probably would, but that wasn't an option. I should just be glad we were safe for now.

"What do you want to do today, Meg?" I asked while I watched her fiddle with her food.

Meghan smiled and came over to sit on my lap. "Mrs. Westen said I could go grocery shopping with her! I really wanna go, Abby. Can I go?" Meghan was bouncing on my lap and I could tell she was really excited. I looked over at Mrs. Westen for approval and she nodded.

"Of course you can go, Meg!" Meghan smiled, clearly excited and slid off my lap to go put her plate in the sink. I also got up to put my plate away, but Mrs. Westen beat me too it.

"Just sit and relax, honey. You shouldn't put too much strain on that ankle. I can take Meghan to the grocery store myself it you just want to sit around here and recuperate. It's been a rough week for you, I bet." I nodded, thankful I wouldn't have to go walking around in a grocery store on my ankle.

After a quick cleanup, Meghan and Mrs. Westen were off to the grocery store, leaving me alone in the house. After sitting in silence for a few minutes, I decided to lounge on the couch and watch some TV. As I flipped through the channels, I thought about my parents again. By now, they surely had realized what we had done, and they were probably looking for us. My stomach churned at the thought of them finding me and I tried to put the thought out of my head. I found a TV channel I liked, and tried to focus on that for a while.

I must have dozed off, because I felt someone shaking me awake after what seemed like a few minutes. I shot up from the couch and nearly smacked Michael in the face with my flailing arms. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." I stammered, blushing.

"Sorry if I scared you. How's the ankle?" Michael asked. I sat back down on the couch and ran my hands through my hair, trying to get my heart rate down. I had been dreaming about my father, and when Michael shook me awake, I thought it was him.

"It's doing much better, thanks for helping me out last night, I hope it wasn't too much trouble." It felt awkward being around Michael, knowing he had carried me to bed last night.

Michael shook his head. "It was fine, you were exhausted and it wasn't a big deal. Where are my mother and your sister?"

"They went to the grocery store. I think Meghan really likes your mom." Michael smiled at that, and I had to laugh a little. I could tell Michael and his mother frequently fought.

"That's great. I'm glad she likes it here, it couldn't have been easy living at your house." Michael sat down on the couch.

"Yeah, she worried about me a lot I think. I'm just glad I was able to protect her. I'm thankful my father never bullied her like he did me." It felt strange to be talking about this with someone else when I always kept it to myself, but I trusted Michael.

Michael hesitated before he spoke again. "I know how it feels to want to protect your sister. I was the same way with my little brother when I was growing up." He paused and then added, "My dad was hard on me growing up too. He was kinda like your dad; he took his anger out on me sometimes."

"So what did you do?" I asked.

"Well, I fought back, like you did. When I turned 18, I decided I had had enough, and I joined the army. Now I'm back here for a little while, and we'll see what happens." Michael got up from the couch and went into the kitchen. After thinking about what he said for a little while, I got up and hobbled into the kitchen to join him.

"So you stayed, even though it was bad?" I asked as Michael rummaged through the refrigerator. Should I have stayed with my parents and not run away like a coward? Would Meghan's life be better if my parents were involved in it? Michael looked up when he realized what I was getting at.

"My situation was much different than yours, Abby. You and your sister were in a lot of danger living in that house with those drugs, and I hope you don't think you made the wrong decision, because you didn't. You're just fighting a different battle than I did." I nodded, feeling a little better.

"So what comes next?" I asked. I wanted to know what the next part of the plan was.

Michael pulled a yogurt out of the fridge before he responded, "To be honest, our priority was getting you two out of that house. I'm going to talk to Sam and Fi today and we will come up with something."

It was a little unsettling that Michael seemed to be playing this whole thing by ear, but who was I to complain? I just nodded and said, "Okay, I guess I'm just happy Meghan is away from my parents."

Michael nodded in agreement then said, "Hey, speaking of your parents, did you have a cell phone they gave you?"

"Yeah, my dad gave it to me so he could contact me during drug runs. It's in my backpack, why?" I asked.

"I'm probably just being paranoid, but I just want to check it for any tracking devices or bugs. I don't know if your father was capable of installing that kind of thing but it's better to be safe than sorry."

I nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go get it from my bag." Part of me wished I would have left it at home because now, like Michael, I was paranoid that my father was capable of tracking my whereabouts. I quickly grabbed the phone and limped back into the kitchen.

Michael took the phone from me and turned it on. "Wow, fifteen missed calls…all from your dad. He left a couple messages too but let's not bother listening to those." He smiled at me then took the back off of the phone. After thoroughly checking the phone, he looked at me and shook his head. "No worries. The phone is clean."

I sighed in relief and took the phone back from Michael. Just as I finished putting the phone away, I heard the front door open and Mrs. Westen and Meghan walked in with their arms full of groceries. I looked towards the kitchen just in time to see Michael going out the backdoor, no doubt trying to avoid Mrs. Westen.

"Did Michael come over?" Mrs. Westen asked while she put the groceries away.

"Yeah, he was here, I think he went outside though." I felt bad outing Michael, but I'm sure Mrs. Westen would just call him anyways. Mrs. Westen looked out the back door and after she spotted Michael she waved. "Looks like he's working on his car."

Meghan looked at me and smiled. "Let's go outside, Abby! It's so nice out today."

"Okay sounds good. Looks like there's a basketball hoop outside; do you want to shoot some hoops, Meg?" Meghan nodded and I turned to Mrs. Westen. "Is there a basketball lying around somewhere?"

"I think there's one in the garage somewhere, honey. Michael will find one." She smiled and started washing the fruit she bought. I felt bad leaving her to put all the stuff away.

"Do you need any help in here?" I asked.

Mrs. Westen shook her head. "Oh, no honey. You two can go outside, I'll be fine in here." I nodded and Meghan grabbed my hand and pulled me out the back door. We walked into the garage and found Michael fiddling with the engine of his car.

"Have you seen a basketball lying around out here?" I asked. Michael looked up and grinned at Meghan.

"You like to play basketball? I think I saw one lying around here somewhere." Meghan smiled and nodded, still shy around Michael and after looking around for a few minutes, he found the basketball in one of the corners of the garage. He handed the ball to Meghan and I nudged her arm.

"What do you say, Meg?" I always tried to get Meghan to say please and thank you whenever possible.

"Thank you." Meghan said shyly.

"You're very welcome. What do you say I show you how to shoot the ball? Your sister shouldn't be walking around on that ankle." Meghan nodded and we walked out of the garage and towards the basketball hoop that was set up in the backyard.

While Michael started showing Meghan the basics on how to shoot the basketball, I spotted a lawn chair leaning against the garage and set it up so I could sit down. After about ten minutes, Meghan really started to come out of her shell with Michael, and she started to return to her usual giggly self. I loved that Meghan finally had someone who paid attention to her and wanted her to learn. My parents never showed that they cared about my sister, and this must have been a refreshing thing for her to experience. I sat on the chair for about twenty more minutes, half watching Michael and Meghan and half thinking about what the plan for the future would be and before I knew it Meghan ran up to me and told me she was tired and wanted to take a nap. I looked at Michael and he looked just as wiped out as Meghan was. "Let's go inside then, Meg." She nodded and ran in the house before I could even get up. I eased myself up from the chair and hobbled towards the garage to thank Michael for entertaining Meghan. Michael looked up when he saw me walk in. "Thanks for playing with her. I think she really likes you."

Michael laughed. "She's like a little ball of energy! I'm pretty wiped out; I don't know how you entertain her every day."

"Well, she's a creature of habit, so we pretty much do the same thing every day. It doesn't take much to make her happy. I think she likes all the attention she is getting here." I knew my sister was already much better off here than she was at my parents house.

"Well, I'm just glad I could help. I have to go meet with Sam and Fi now, but I'll talk to you tomorrow, Abby. Remember to stay off that ankle today. It should be a lot better tomorrow." Michael closed the hood of his car and got in.

"Okay, I will. Bye, Michael." As I walked back in the house, I felt happier than I had felt in years.


	6. Chapter 6

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 6

The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful, and on Monday morning I still hadn't heard anything about the plan to get my parents out of our lives. I was getting so anxious I could barely sit still and I was lucky my ankle was feeling so much better. It almost felt normal to walk on it and I was thankful there wouldn't be any permanent damage. I hoped Michael would come by soon and tell me what the plan was because I was getting more nervous at every passing minute. I think Mrs. Westen could feel the tension in the air, because after breakfast she announced that she wanted to go out and get some errands done. "Meghan, do you want to come with me?" She asked. My sister had probably been feeling my anxiety as well.

"Sure! Are you gonna come, Abby?" Meghan ran towards the door and slipped on her flip flops. She looked anxious to get out of the house.

I shook my head. "No, I'm gonna wait here just in case Michael comes over and needs to talk to me." I replied. I didn't want Michael to come over when I wasn't around because I wanted to know what the plan was. Meghan just nodded and within five minutes, they were gone. The empty house felt really lonely, so I decided to go lay in my bed and read to pass the time.

After about twenty minutes of reading, I heard the sound of the phone my father had given me going off in my bag. I pulled it out of my bag, thinking it would just be my father calling again, but the number was one I didn't recognize. On a whim, I opened the phone and answered it. "Hello?"

A man's voice was on the other end. "Hello, is this Abby Gorham?"

"Yes, can I ask who's calling?" I had no idea who this could be, but I was regretting picking up the phone.

"This is Jim Holbrook. I'm a security guard at Dade Central High School, and it looks like your locker has been broken into." I took a deep breath, already feeling better nobody suspicious was on the phone, but then my stomach dropped when I realized it was probably my father who broke into my locker trying to find where we had disappeared to.

"Oh no! Was anything stolen?" I asked, knowing I didn't have anything in there of value.

"Well, that's the problem. We can't tell if anything was stolen, so we're going to need you to come in and take a look so we can verify if anything is missing." I took a deep breath. It would be very risky to take a trip to the high school right now, but then again, I would probably be able to tell if my father was the one who broke into my locker if I went.

"Okay, can I come in right now?" I asked, sitting up in bed.

"Sure, I'll be here till 12:30 today so I'll just expect you in the next half hour." The security guard replied.

"Okay, thank you very much." I hung up and began to get ready in a hurry. My high school was pretty far from Mrs. Westen's house, so I would have to take a bus there.

I walked a couple blocks from the house before I was able to catch the bus. Once I had got on and paid, I sat down and thought about what it would be like to finally have my parents out of my life. I would never be involved in any kind of illegal activity again, and Meghan and I would live our lives without fear. I worried a lot about how hard it would be to raise Meghan on my own, but then again I had been doing it for most of my life and she seemed to be turning out okay. In the last few days since we left our house, I could already see a change in my little sister. I could see that she was becoming more comfortable around other people, and she was really starting to come out of her shell. Meghan had always been a very shy person, but I hoped this new found outgoing nature would stay with her when this was all over.

I also hoped that I would get over this ordeal with some time too. I hadn't slept as well in years since we came to Mrs. Westen's house, but I still woke up in the middle of the night pretty frequently after having horrible nightmares about my parents finding us. I hoped the nightmares wouldn't persist once we were safe, but all I could do was try to forget about it. I thought about my future some more for the rest of the ride, and before I knew it, it was time to get off the bus.

I walked quickly, and when I got about a block away from the high school, I started to have a funny feeling. Was this really a smart thing for me to be doing? I told myself I would be fine and then reminded myself once again that I had the cell phone Michael had given me if I needed to call him. Right as I walked up the steps to the front door, I stopped dead in my tracks. _I can't do this_, I thought to myself. I was way too close to my house for my liking, and I couldn't risk being spotted. I couldn't believe I had let myself get this far, especially because my parents were surely looking for me. I sat down on the steps and called Michael, trying to take deep breaths to stop my racing heart. He answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"It's me, Abby. I did something stupid." I began.

"What did you do?" Michael asked cautiously.

I felt butterflies in my stomach and I stood up. "Well, I got a call from my school that my locker had been broken into, so I came down here to meet the security guard, but now I'm having second thoughts." I heard Michael take a deep breath on the other end.

"I'm coming to get you right now, just stay where you are, okay?"

I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "Okay, I'll be in front." Michael hung up and I put the phone back in my pocket. I blew out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in and took a look out into the parking lot. All of a sudden an all too familiar blue car pulled right up to the school, startling me. Before I even had time to think about what to do, my father stepped out of the car, his eyes gleaming. At that point I resigned myself to the fact that a confrontation was imminent.

My father walked up to me and I resisted the urge to back up. There was nowhere to run and I would have to face him. I started to say, "Look, Dad –" but he slapped me across the face before I could get a sentence out and I fell to the ground.

I laid there stunned, grabbing my stinging cheek, and before I could get up, my father grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet. "You think you're smart, huh?" He asked, and shook me so hard my teeth rattled. Before I could answer, he slapped me again. "You think you can just run away from us? Where's your sister?" He was gripping my arms so hard that his hands were white. I gritted my teeth in pain.

"She's not here." I answered. I tried to pull away from my father but he just pulled me closer. I glanced around the parking lot but there was not a soul in sight. It looked like I was on my own to deal with my clearly angry father.

"Where the hell is she, girl?" I shook my head. If I wasn't going to escape my father, then Meghan would.

"You don't know, huh? Well we'll find her sooner or later." Before I could react, my father threw me over his shoulder and began walking towards the car. I screamed and began kicking my legs and pounding on his back as hard as I could. My father couldn't hold on to me, and I fell forwards, landing hard on my shoulder and smacking my forehead on the cement. I was momentarily stunned, but I got up as fast as I could and began running. I couldn't quite run in a straight line because I was so stunned, but I made it about five steps before I was tackled to the ground from behind. My elbows and knees absorbed most of the impact, and I cried out when I felt them scraping against the pavement. My father grabbed my shoulder and turned me over to face him. "Damn it, Abby! You better stop this shit right now and come with me, or else when I find that sister of yours I'll kill her!" My father started pulling me off the ground, and I was getting desperate to get away.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" I shouted. I reared my arm back and brought my hand across his face, taking him by surprise. My nails dug into his cheek and I drew blood. He howled in pain and grabbed his face, giving me the opportunity to run like a bat out of hell out of the parking lot. I looked back right as I reached the edge of the parking lot, and my father was running behind me, but he was far away. I sped up, not looking back again and ran straight ahead towards a large office building. I ducked into the alley and peered around the building to see if I saw my father, but I didn't see anyone. I spotted a dumpster halfway down the alley and ran to hide behind it. Once I was behind the dumpster, I gave myself a couple seconds to catch my breath and then I whipped out the cell phone to call Michael.

"I'm almost there, Abby." He said when he answered the phone.

I let out a sob before I answered. "Michael, my dad came after me. I'm hiding behind an office building about a block away from the school." I was still so out of breath I could barely make sense out of what I was saying. I felt like my head was swimming.

"I'm coming, stay out of sight and I'll find you." Michael hung up the phone and I dropped it on the ground next to me. I eased myself onto the ground until I was sitting on my butt and then I rested my head on my knees and began listening for footsteps. There weren't many people in the streets since it was a work day, so I would know if an intruder was coming. I felt the tears coming on, and I angrily wiped them away. My cheek felt puffy from being slapped and I could taste blood in my mouth from a cut on the inside of my cheek. My forehead was sticky with blood and my whole body seemed to be throbbing with the beat of my heart. I prayed that Michael would find me soon because his presence meant nothing but safety since the day I met him. I wished I could get out from behind the smelly dumpster, but I couldn't risk being seen by my father. I knew he was probably still looking for me and I didn't even want to think about what would happen if he found me. After a few minutes, I heard the sound of footsteps, and I moved farther into the shadow of the dumpster and tried to be as invisible as possible. I put my arms over my head because if the person approaching was my father I didn't want to look up into his smug face.

Michael Westen POV

After getting Abby's second phone call and hearing that her father had ambushed her, I drove the charger as fast as it would go and headed towards her school. I felt horrible that Abby was in so much danger with her father, especially since we hadn't developed a plan yet. Once I approached the parking lot, I scanned the area around the school for the office building she had mentioned. I needed to find her before her father did and I was afraid I was already too late. I spotted a tall office building over the trees about a block away and high-tailed it in the general direction. I scanned the streets searching for anyone who looked like they were searching for someone, but I didn't see anyone.

A couple minutes later, I pulled up to the front of the office building. I got out of the car and quickly made my way towards the back of the building, keeping an eye out for Abby as I went. I was tempted to call her name once I got to the alley behind the building, but I didn't want to draw attention to our situation. I thought about where I would hide if I was in Abby's shoes, and I spotted a dumpster about thirty yards away that looked promising. I approached cautiously because I didn't want to surprise Abby if she was behind it, and my heart sank in relief when I spotted her huddled on the ground next to the dumpster. She was tucked into a ball with her arms over her head and she looked visibly frightened. "Abby?" I asked gently.

She looked up at me with an expression of immense relief, but then her expression quickly changed to guilt. "I'm so sorry, Michael." She looked like she was going to start crying.

I couldn't think of a response so I settled for holding my hand out for her to grab. She took my hand and I pulled her to her feet and into the sunlight. Finally seeing her in the light, I noticed how bad she looked. Her brown hair looked like it had been in a ponytail, but her hair was falling all around her face. Her forehead was visibly scraped and it looked like the right side of her face was swollen, her green eyes were tearing up while she looked up at me. She looked so pitiful that I couldn't help but put my arm around her. "It's okay, Abby. You're safe now, let's just get out of here. We can get you cleaned up at my place."

As I walked to the car with my arm around Abby, I could tell that I was getting too emotionally involved in her situation and I knew from experience that this could only lead to trouble. Being in the spy game had taught me to keep everyone at an arm's length, and pulling someone in closer seemed foreign. Abby's situation was so much like mine and I desperately wanted to help her fight back for all the years that I couldn't as a child.

On the drive home, we were both still absorbed in our thoughts and I didn't know what I could say to make Abby feel better. I wasn't good at this kind of stuff and part of me wished Fiona was here. Then again, Fiona wasn't good at this kind of stuff either. Feeling out of my element, I just waited for Abby to talk to me before jumping into awkward small talk to fill the car ride. I wanted to know what happened but I didn't want to press her for information before she was ready.

After what felt like an eternity, just as we were about to pull into the loft, Abby finally broke the silence. "Are you mad at me?" She asked timidly.

I put the car in park and turned to her. "I'm not mad at you, Abby. I'm just frustrated that you have to deal with this."

Abby turned to look out the window, away from me. "Well, it was my fault that I ended up in that situation today. I should have stayed in the house or called you before I left."

I tried to keep my face calm, but on the inside I felt like I was about to boil over. It was almost like Abby was apologizing for getting attacked by her crazy father. I gripped the steering wheel in an attempt to release some aggression before I said, "I don't want to hear you blame yourself for what happened today, Abby. You can't control what your father does, but now we just know we have to be more careful." Abby was still looking away from me and I could tell she was crying so I just patted her on the shoulder and said, "Let's just go inside."

When we got inside, Abby plopped down in one of my chairs and I went to find my first-aid kit. It took me a couple minutes to recover it from underneath all of the clutter on my workbench, but when I looked inside I was glad to see that I had everything Abby would need. I headed to the kitchen where the light was brightest and said, "Abby come over here where it's brighter." She wordlessly moved to one of the kitchen stools and I took the opportunity to look her over once again. I stood in front of her and said, "Wow, you got roughed up pretty good. Are you ready to tell me what happened?" I couldn't beat around the bush anymore.

Abby looked down, embarrassed, but then looked back up at me. "Well, right after I called you my dad showed up in his car. He kind of blocked me in so I felt like I couldn't run away. Before I knew it he was in front of me and he slapped me," Abby turned her face so I could see the swelling and I could almost make out a handprint. I nodded and she kept going, "he was asking me about Meghan but I didn't say anything and he said he would find her. Then he tried to get me in the car and that's when I really started fighting back. He dropped me on my shoulder and I banged my head a little. I tried to run, but I was so dazed that I couldn't get far before he tackled me." Abby was pointing out bruises and scrapes as she told her story and I felt my blood pressure rising at every new injury that was revealed. "I ended up scratching him and I was able to run and hide where you found me. I don't know where my dad went after that."

I took a deep, calming breath before I asked, "Does anything feel broken? Or just bruises and scrapes?" I immediately turned to the freezer to get ice for her face because I knew she needed it.

"I think everything is ok. My face hurts the worst, and I just need to clean out these scrapes." I nodded and handed her the ice, then I went to the sink and wet a clean washcloth to clean her scrapes.

Abby moved to grab the washcloth, but I said, "Just hold the ice to your face, I'll help with this." She nodded and I gently began cleaning the dirt and dried blood off of her various scrapes. When I was done, I asked her, "Do you want to shower before I bandage these scrapes?"

Abby set down the ice and sighed in relief. "That would be great." She got up to go to the bathroom but then stopped and turned around. "I can't go back to your mom's house looking like this. Meghan may believe some story that I fell, but I'm sure your mom wouldn't. It seems like not much gets past her."

Abby had my mom pegged pretty good. "You're right. Sleep here tonight and I'll figure it out in the morning. Will Meghan be okay without you?"

Abby nodded and turned back towards the bathroom. "I'll give her a call later but I'm sure she will be fine. She gets along really well with your mom."

As soon as I heard the shower running, I called Fi and filled her in on what happened to Abby. After I finished, all Fiona said was, "I'm calling Sam. We're coming over right now to figure out a plan. This has gone way too far, Michael." I couldn't agree more.

**A/N: I thought I would take a stab at writing in Michael's POV. I hope everyone liked it, and I would love some feedback! Also, a few reviewers thought Michael was ooc in the last chapter, but that was not my intention. There have been a few episodes involving kids that were in rough situations and Michael was always sensitive to that because of his past. I was trying to model my Michael after his behavior in those episodes. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying the story! **


	7. Chapter 7

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 7

When I emerged from the shower, having scrubbed myself clean of all the dirt and grime that I was covered with after my run-in with my father, I was surprised to see Sam, Fiona, and Michael all huddled around the kitchen counter talking in low voices. They looked up when they heard me open the bathroom door and I immediately wished I could melt into the floor. Fiona looked positively murderous and Sam had an angry expression on his face. I hadn't wanted anyone to see me like this; littered in bruises and scrapes and my eyes still red from crying. I had been embarrassed enough that Michael had seen me at my worst, but now Sam and Fiona had to see the consequences of my silly mistake. "Feeling better?" Michael asked to break the tension.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied. I was feeling a little bit better, but the scrapes that littered my arms and legs were still pulsing painfully.

Michael nodded, but I could tell he saw right through me. "I think you should probably call your sister to tell her you won't be coming back to the house tonight." Michael said as he handed me his phone, then added, "If you want some privacy, just go ahead and step out on the balcony."

I nodded and attempted to smile at everyone but it probably looked like more of a grimace. As I stepped out onto the balcony, I dialed Mrs. Westen's house and she answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Westen, it's Abby." I started.

"Oh, Abby! We've been worried about you! I was just about to call Michael!" Mrs. Westen sounded slightly panicked and I hoped my sister wasn't also worried.

"No need, I'm with Michael right now. Actually, we're working some things out right now so I won't be coming back to your house tonight." I hoped Mrs. Westen didn't ask a lot of questions because I would surely break down.

"Hmm, alright. Did you want to talk to your sister? She's been worried about you and she's right here." I could practically see Meghan hanging around by the phone waiting to talk to me.

"That would be great. Thanks, Mrs. Westen." I replied. I only had to wait a minute before Meg picked up the phone.

"Hi, Abby! When are you coming back?" She asked. At the sound of her voice I felt a wave of emotion and I could feel the tears coming on again. I was so relieved that Meghan hadn't been with me earlier today. I willed myself not to give away that anything was wrong.

"Hi, Meg! I'm actually working with Michael right now and I'm not going to be able to come back to the house tonight. I'll be there first thing in the morning though, okay?" I prayed Meghan wouldn't be upset because I really didn't want her to have to see me tonight. Tomorrow I was confident that I would be ready to face her and Mrs. Westen, but right now I was a bit of a wreck.

"Okay, Abby. I'll miss you but I'll be a big girl." I sighed gratefully.

"Okay, Meg. Have fun tonight, and be good for Mrs. Westen. I'll be back before you know it." I replied, still trying not to cry.

"Abby! You know I'm always good." Meghan said stubbornly, then added, "Bye!" After I heard the click of Abby hanging up the phone, I flipped the cell phone shut and leaned against the railing on the balcony. Even though I didn't want to admit it to myself, I was worried about my sister being alone tonight. What if something happened and I wasn't there to protect her? The emotions of the day were weighing down on me and I felt tears rolling down my cheeks. I swiped them away and then grimaced, forgetting about the bruise on my cheek from where my father slapped me. While I stood on the balcony trying to collect myself, I heard loud voices coming from inside the loft. I tried not to listen in, but I couldn't help it. Fiona was shouting at Michael.

"Michael, I can't believe I'm hearing this! All because you delayed in coming up with a solution to the problem, Abby gets her ass kicked by that son of a bitch! You're supposed to be helping her, not getting her hurt!" Fiona was clearly venting her anger out on Michael and I felt extremely uncomfortable because it was my fault.

"Fi, it's not like I knew this was gonna happen! Why can't we just be happy she got out of there and move on with the plan?" Michael countered.

Fiona huffed. "Michael, these girls aren't like all the other people you help. They are depending on you to make this situation better and you're not doing a very good job at the moment."

"Don't tell me I don't care about them, Fi! I made the mistake of waiting to figure out what we're gonna do to help them, but now we're gonna figure this out and fix this, alright?" I couldn't help but feel like I didn't deserve all this attention. I shook my head and walked back into the loft.

"Everything's fine." I said, and then eased myself into a green chair.

"Except for the fact that you look like you ran into a meat grinder." Fiona added while giving Michael a dirty look.

"Fi, stop." Michael gave Fiona an equally murderous stare and the tension went up a few notches in the room. Before anyone could say anything else, Sam cut in.

"I got an idea, everyone." He stared at Michael and Fiona pointedly, "that is, unless you two need to step outside for a few minutes and reconcile your differences?" Michael shook his head and gestured for Sam to continue. "Alright, Abby, what's the one thing you think your parents want more than anything right now?"

I shrugged, feeling the answer was obvious. "They want me and my sister back."

Sam nodded. "That's right. So, why don't we give him just that?"

Michael looked at Sam like he had had one too many beers. "Keep going, Sam. Get to the point."

Sam laughed. "How about a trade? Mikey, you approach the dad saying you need to get rid of your stash because the cops are on to you. You're desperate to give these drugs away and you'll do it for _any_ trade off. See where I'm going with this, Mike?"

Michael thought about this for a second, and then he perked up and nodded. "Sure, I can get him to ask me to help him find Abby and Meghan. I'll hire a private investigator," at this he pointed to Sam, "my good friend Chuck Finley will locate the girls. As soon as we make the trade: information about the whereabouts of the girls for the drugs, then the police investigator shows up." At this he pointed to Fiona.

Fiona jumped in after that. "Yes, and then what? We can't actually arrest them, can we?"

Michael shook his head. "I think we're going to have to take this plan as we go. Let's see if I can get this guy to ask me to look for Abby and Meghan first. If that doesn't work then the plan will have to be modified. The plan hinges on this private investigator thing. It's a bit of a leap of faith but I think we might pull it off."

Sam shook his head. "Mike, I don't like the idea of us flying by the seat of our pants on this. We only have a couple days to do this while the girls are on spring break."

"That's why we'll have to make this work, Sam." Michael seemed to be set in his decision. An idea suddenly came to me and I piped in.

"Um, I like the idea of trying to get my dad to ask you to find us, but what about if you came back and told him that I was turning it all around on him and trying to bring his whole drug operation down? Maybe we could scare my parents into leaving if they thought the whole police force was coming down on them." They all stared at me and I could feel my face burning in embarrassment. I looked down at my hands so I didn't have to meet anyone's eyes.

Sam chuckled and I looked up at him. "This kid should be workin' with the government or something. I like that idea."

Michael nodded approvingly in my direction. "I think that would be a smart move, but I still have to convince him that I can help him find the girls. I can't make it too obvious that I want him to ask. That'll take some work on my end."

"It's nothing you can't handle, Michael." Fi cut in. "After all, you've had quite a bit of practice with lying over the years, right?" I could tell Fiona was referring to a certain event and I looked around the room nervously.

"Changing the subject." Michael said shortly. "We'll do this tomorrow, so we have a lot of work to do. Sam, would you mind going over to Abby's house to see if we can find her father? I'll need to know where he is and what he's been up to since earlier today." Sam nodded and stood up from the barstool he was sitting on.

"You got it, brother." Before he left he gave me a high five. "Feel better, Abby."

After Sam had left, Michael turned to Fiona. "Fi since we don't need you to be the fed anymore, I'm thinking maybe we should go together tomorrow, you know, as a couple to try and appear like we're just like Abby's parents. Maybe if they see a lot of similarities between us they'll open up more."

Fiona smiled. "Michael, are you asking me to be your wife?" Fiona batted her eyelashes.

Michael forced a smile. "Uh-huh. For the cover."

Fiona looked like she was enjoying the fact that Michael was so obviously uncomfortable. "Let's be Donnie and Dina, the lovebird drug dealers from Mississippi." Fiona said in a southern accent. I laughed at the funny accent and I could feel the heaviness of the day start to slip away.

"Alright, Fi. I'll see you tomorrow." Michael said as he ushered Fiona towards the door.

"Bye-bye, Donnie!" Fiona said as she exited. Michael slammed the door and put his forehead against it. After a minute, he turned to me.

"We should probably cover those scrapes up, Abby. You don't want to get an infection." I nodded and he went to the first aid kit to grab some bandages. While he worked on covering up my scrapes, we talked about my parents. "I need to know as much as possible about them, Abby."

I nodded and thought I would start with the basics. "My dad's name is John, wow I can't believe I never told you his name." I laughed that I had left that out when Michael first found out about my parents. "He works the morning shift at the gas station on ridge and maple. He hates his job, so he talks a lot about that when he's home. My mom's name is Laura. She doesn't have a job and basically sits around the house all day. When my parents are home they love watching TV. Reality shows, game shows, stupid stuff like that." I paused to think of more things I could tell Michael.

"Do you have any idea where your parents get their drugs from?" Michael asked.

"No, I really don't know. I think they have a lot stashed in our house though. I'm pretty sure my dad runs his own operation. He hires people to follow me when I deliver the drugs and he loves to be in control. That's pretty much all I know about it." Michael asked me some more questions after that and I tried my best to fill him in on what I knew about my parents. By the time Michael felt like he had enough information, it was getting pretty late. I was exhausted, but I didn't want to go to sleep because I knew I would have nightmares after the day I had had.

Michael could tell something was wrong. Even though I'd only known him for a short period of time, he seemed to be able to see right through me. "Are you tired?" He asked; I could tell it was a leading question.

"Yeah… I just don't wanna see him in my nightmares." I replied lamely. Michael knew I was referring to my father.

Michael nodded and then avoided my eyes while he replied, "I'm not going to pretend that you'll have a dream-free night, but just know that over time it will get better." He looked at me and then added, "I've been exactly where you are right now, Abby. It's hard, but you'll eventually get over it."

I smiled. "Thanks."

Michael nodded. "Alright, I have a couch upstairs that you can crash on, and I'll just be right down here if you need me."

I stood up and stretched. "Okay, goodnight."

It took me a while to fall asleep, but knowing that Michael was downstairs gave me the security I needed to finally get some well deserved rest.

Michael Westen POV

I could tell that Abby was obviously scared to go to sleep, so I puttered around the loft after she went to bed so she knew I was still awake if she had any problems. I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway though; I was worried about our meeting with Abby's dad the next day. While I felt that her father would be pretty easily convinced that I was a trustworthy southerner with a problem, I wasn't sure that he would ask me for help finding the girls. As a spy, it's a very delicate art trying to get someone to do something you want them to do without them knowing that they're playing right into your hand. It requires dropping subtle hints and knowing exactly when to push a subject and when to back off.

I was also slightly worried about how I would control my temper around Abby's father. This man reminded me so much of my father that I would be hard pressed to act like I liked the guy. In reality I would probably want to punch him in the face and give him a taste of his own medicine. I was sure Fiona would probably feel the same way, and her temper was way worse than mine. I knew I was way too emotionally invested in this case and I had a feeling that it would come back to bite me if I wasn't careful.

Tired of pacing around the loft with nothing to do, I grabbed my gun and set it down on the table so I could clean it. Cleaning my gun always relaxed me, and I was hoping that it would help put a damper on the many thoughts that were racing through my head. Before I could even begin, I heard the sound of my phone ringing and I raced towards the bed to answer it before it woke Abby up. I looked at the caller id and Sam's number showed up. I slipped out to the balcony before I answered. "Hey Sam, how'd it go?"

"So far so good, Mikey. Both the parents are in the house right now. The dad is clearly angry, I can see him pacing around the living room right now, and earlier he was tearing apart Abby's room looking for any sort of clue." I felt good about the status report.

"Sounds like someone is getting desperate. Nice work, Sam." It looked like we were in a perfect position to approach Abby's parents tomorrow.

"Thanks, brother. I think the best time to approach them tomorrow is around mid-afternoon." I could hear the sound of crunching on the other end and I could tell Sam was snacking on something.

"Right. Fiona and I are going in as a couple, and hopefully we'll be able to work something out. Let's meet at my mom's house tomorrow around 2:00 and then we'll go from there." Sam chuckled and I could tell he was laughing about me and Fiona working together.

"Sounds like a plan, see you tomorrow, Mikey." After Sam hung up, I quietly made my way back into the loft and listened for any sounds of Abby stirring. I was happy when I didn't hear anything and I sat back down at the table to work on my gun, feeling much more relaxed than I had felt ten minutes ago. With Sam's information our plan was finally taking shape.


	8. Chapter 8

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 8

Michael Westen POV

The next morning I was up bright and early getting ready for the day. After about thirty minutes of puttering around, I realized I didn't really have anything to prepare for. Fi and I were just going to talk to Abby's parents so all we would really need was ourselves and a couple of concealed weapons just in case things got out of hand. We were all meeting at my mom's house in a few hours to go over the details, so I figured I would give Abby some more time to sleep. I hadn't heard any noise coming from upstairs since I got up, so I could tell she was still sleeping. I looked at my clothing selection and debated what to wear for our little meeting. I didn't want to wear anything too nice because I wanted to come off as being the struggling southerner so I chose a plain gray tank top and my working jeans. Based on how Abby had described them, her parents didn't seem like the type of people that would enjoy wearing fancy clothing.

An hour later, while I was fixing a broken pipe under my sink, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I scooted out from under the sink and stood up. "Good morning." I said when I saw Abby. She looked much better after a good night's sleep, but the bruise on her face had really set in and it looked very dark.

"Good morning." She replied. She sat down at one of the stools by the kitchen counter and rubbed her eyes.

"How did you sleep?" I asked.

She smiled. "Like a rock, actually. What time is it?" It was amazing to me that Abby seemed so much happier today. Yesterday she had been so defeated when I found her behind that dumpster and I wouldn't soon forget the look on her face when she saw me.

"9:00, I would offer you breakfast but all I have is yogurt. I'm not much of a breakfast person. We should actually head back to my mom's house soon; I bet your sister is anxious to see you." I felt bad I hadn't thought to get something for Abby to eat, but if we went back to my mom's house now, she would surely have something lying around for breakfast.

Abby got off the stool and stretched. "That's okay; I don't usually eat breakfast anyway. What am I going to say to your mom about all this?" She pointed to her face and I sighed. I had forgotten about what we would tell my mother. Looking at Abby's face, it was almost unmistakable that she had been slapped. There was no way I would be able to lie to my mother about what happened.

"We're not going to be able to hide this from her, Abby. I'll tell her what happened, just don't worry about it." I made a mental note to tell Abby and her sister to leave the room before I told my mom what had gone down yesterday because there would definitely be some yelling and maybe even objects being thrown, all in my direction.

Abby shook her head. "Alright, if you think it's best. I'm not telling Meghan though; she doesn't need to know." I agreed, and about fifteen minutes later we were in the car and on our way back to my mom's house. We were silent the whole trip back to the house, and when we pulled up I had a sudden thought.

"Abby, were there any buyers that you delivered drugs to pretty frequently?" She thought about it for a second but then shook her head.

"Well, there were a lot of times that I went to the same places to make deliveries, but I never knew names of any of those people. I could only tell you where I met them." I thought about this for a second and then nodded.

"That might work. We need to have some sort of explanation of how we actually found your parents. We can't just walk up to your house and act like we looked them up in the phonebook. Just tell me a few locations you went to frequently and we'll work off of that." Abby nodded, seeming eager to help out.

"Okay, one of the places I went at least once a week was the bay harbor marina. I would meet this guy in a little shaded area off to the side. He always wore shorts and sandals and he looked like he had stepped off a boat. I always thought he might have lived on one of the boats docked in the marina." I took a few mental notes and gestured for Abby to continue. "Another place I went to a lot was the parking lot of the McDonald's across the street from this car repair shop. The guy I delivered to over there always had greasy clothes on so I figured he must have worked at the car repair shop."

I opened the car door and got out and Abby followed suit. "That's actually going to be very helpful." I said as we walked towards the house. I felt the strange feeling that was creeping around in my stomach that I always seemed to get when I was near my childhood home, and I pushed it away as we climbed the steps. As usual, before I could even open the door, it flew open, revealing my very angry mother.

"What the hell happened, Michael?" She said, advancing on me before we even walked in the door. She had clearly been able to tell that Abby had been knocked around.

I put my arms up to avoid attack and said, "Ma, let's just go inside before the neighbors hear us, alright?" My mother huffed and walked into the house and I let Abby walk in ahead of me. She gave me an apologetic look but I just shook my head. "It's fine, why don't you take your sister and go outside and enjoy the nice weather?" Abby got my hint and immediately went to go find Meghan.

A few minutes later, once the girls were outside and out of earshot, my mother rounded on me. "Michael, you said you were going to keep her safe! What the hell happened to her?" I sighed and sank down into one of the kitchen chairs and my mother sat in the chair next to me. While she lit her cigarette I debated what to say.

"Abby got a call from her school yesterday because her locker had been broken into. I guess the school wanted her to come in and see if anything was stolen, so Abby decided to go. She didn't tell me what she was doing or I would have told her not to go. Once she got to the school, she panicked and called me to come pick her up. While I was on my way her father attacked her." My mother shook her head in disgust.

"How is she?" She asked. She was staring out the window and I could tell her thoughts were far away.

"She's much better today, Ma. Yesterday was hard for her but she's a resilient girl. You should keep an eye on her though; she acts tough on the outside but I can tell she's scared." My mother nodded and then turned back to me.

"Are you going to be wrapping this up soon, Michael? Both these girls are under a lot of stress right now." She stubbed her cigarette out in the ash tray and got up to look out the kitchen window. I could tell she was watching Abby and Meghan outside.

"I hope so, Mom. This whole thing is kind of a mess." It felt strange to be talking to my mother with this much civility. Usually our conversations consisted mostly of arguments. "I really appreciate you letting the girls stay here, Mom. It really means a lot."

"It's no problem, honey. If they weren't staying here I'd never see you!" After that, the conversation went downhill very rapidly, and a few minutes later we were arguing about seemingly pointless things again.

About an hour later, Sam and Fi arrived, and it was about time for us to head to Abby's parents house for our first meeting. Fi was wearing a simple white t-shirt and jeans and she nodded approvingly at my outfit. "You look like you just stepped out of a cornfield." She commented. I smiled.

"You don't look so bad yourself, Dina." Fi smirked back at me and then Sam cleared his throat.

"Are you two lovebirds ready to talk this out?" I rolled my eyes at his comment and we all sat down at the kitchen table.

"Alright, I think I figured out how we're going to approach them. Abby gave me a few locations of places she delivered drugs to pretty frequently, so we'll mention those places to Abby's folks and say that's how we found them. Sound good?" Sam and Fi looked skeptical.

"That's a paper thin story, Mikey. That's not gonna hold up very long." I shrugged.

"We don't need it to hold up. With any luck, we'll get them pulled into our story so far that it won't matter where we came from; they'll rely on what we tell them. If they think the law is coming after them, they won't care where the help came from, they'll just take it." Fi agreed with me, but Sam still looked wary. We hashed out our plan for about twenty minutes after that, and then we were ready to leave. By then, Abby and Meghan had come back into the house and Abby looked nervous.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" She asked.

"It'll be fine. We should be back here in about an hour." We waved goodbye and then we were headed to Abby's parent's house.

Right before we pulled up to Abby's parent's house, I turned to Fiona. "Fi, we only get one shot at this." I felt anxious for what lay ahead and I could tell Fi was nervous as well. As a spy, one of the first things you're told in training is not to let nerves or your emotions get in the way.

"I know, Michael. Let's just get it done." Fi's face was set in a hard line but I could tell she was just as determined as I was. By that point, we had pulled up to the house and we were ready. Preparing for a mission is sort of like getting ready for a big athletic event. You feel the nerves and anticipation before you step on the field, but once the game starts all your nerves float away and get replaced by adrenaline and excitement.

"Well alright then; after you, Dina." I said, laying my southern accent on thick. Fi smiled and opened the car door. I followed behind her and grabbed her hand as we walked up to the front steps. I knocked on the door of the run down looking house and we stepped back to wait for an answer. The door swung open a few seconds later, revealing an angry looking John Gorham. He had three puffy looking red gashes on his left cheek, and I smiled inside knowing Abby had made those marks.

"Yeah?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

"You John?" I asked. He nodded and I continued, "My name's Donnie, and this here is my girl Dina." Fi nodded at John and smiled.

"What do you want?" John looked at us like we were about to sell knives to him.

"We want your help if you'll give it to us." I looked around me nervously. "Listen, you mind if we come inside? This here is a sensitive issue." At my edginess, John stepped aside and let us in the house. I looked around when we stepped in and the house looked messy and torn apart. It was clear that John and Laura had been searching for clues. Abby's mother was sitting on the couch watching TV and she stared at us when she heard the door close.

"You got two minutes, buddy." John looked at his watch as he said this.

"Alright, listen. Me and Dina came down from Mississippi. We had a sweet little operation dealing drugs until we found out the cops were on to us. We packed up our stash and headed down here and now we gotta get rid of what we have so we can disappear." I put my arm around Fi's shoulders and pulled her close. "If they find us with the drugs, then me and my girl will be separated forever. Can you help us out? I'll give you the stuff for free if you just take it off our hands." As I talked, John's face went from expressionless to enraged.

Abby's mother got up from the couch and made her way over to us. "John, what the hell?" She looked at her husband in shock. They clearly hadn't expected us to know they were drug dealers. John shook his head and I knew what was coming. I took my arm off Fi's shoulder just in time for Abby's father to plow me into the wall. He grabbed my shirt with both his hands and got up in my face.

"Donnie!" Fi shouted in a surprised voice. Abby's father ignored her.

"How'd you know about us?" He shouted in my face. "Who told you?"

I feigned shock and put my hands up in surrender even though I was ready to put this guy on the floor, which would be all too easy. "Take it easy, man! We asked around town about who we could go to with our problem, and some people mentioned you guys! We don't mean any harm, we just got this problem and we're desperate!" John took his hands off me and stepped away. I stayed by the wall looking frightened and Fi came to my side.

"Who did you ask? Tell me where you met these people." John was still skeptical.

I turned to Fi, trying to look like I was remembering where we met the people who referred us to John and Laura. "Donnie, there was that man by the marina. Remember him? What was that marina called…" Fi pretended to be thinking and I filled it in for her. "Bay harbor, that's the one. Thanks, honey. There was a guy there, said you guys were good people and we should go to you. Wouldn't tell me his name though." John looked at Laura and she nodded. We were finally getting somewhere.

"Fine, I got it. We aren't selling right now though, so I can't help you two out." I looked at Fi and she shook her head.

"Why aren't you selling? From what I heard, business is boomin'!" I gestured an explosion with my hands and laughed.

"We're not doing too well." I could tell John was lying and I saw an opening.

I shook my head and smiled. "That's not what I heard, buddy. From what I could tell, you got a pretty solid operation. Guy I met at McDonald's the other day told me you got this kid runnin' deliveries for you. Said he never even saw your face, but he gave me your phone number and I had one of my guys track you down. Sounds to me like you got things figured out pretty good."

Fi gave me an exasperated look. "Donnie, shut up!" I waved my hand at Fi and turned back to John.

"We got a problem here and we're desperate. I'll do anything you want me to, I just need you to take the drugs off my hands." John was looking at Laura and I could practically see the wheels turning.

"You got a guy who tracked me down with the phone number?" He looked at me waiting for an answer.

"Yeah, sure he's some sort of private investigator. What does that matter? Are you gonna help us out or not?" This moment was very delicate. I couldn't lead on that I wanted John to ask about Chuck Finley. Fi grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight, also knowing this moment was crucial.

"We'll take those drugs off your hands, but you gotta do something for us first." I shook my head frantically and smiled.

"Sure, sure, anything!" I looked eagerly at John.

"Give me the number for your PI friend." John whipped out his phone like I was going to recite the number like a good boy, but I shook my head. I couldn't give it away that easy. I had to seem reluctant.

"What the hell for! The guy already did me one favor and I'm not about to ask him again! He's dangerous and he's got a nasty temper." Fi turned to me and slapped me across the face, which was very much unexpected. I gave her a private glare.

"Donnie just tell him what he wants! He's gonna take our stash off our hands; what are you an idiot?" Fi put her hands on her hips and stared at me.

"Dina, you know Chuck is crazy! I ain't askin' him a favor again." John shook his head, clearly seeing that I was afraid of this guy.

"Look, guy, I need to talk to this Chuck character. My daughter is missing and she's the one who makes deliveries for our operation. Little bitch ran away with my other daughter a couple days ago." My blood boiled at the way John talked about his daughters, especially Abby.

I looked at John and smiled. I pointed at his cheek. "She give you that? Looks like she got the better of you, my friend!"

Abby's father looked murderous. "Yeah, she'll pay for that. That's why I need this guy's number. Sooner we get them back the better." I could practically feel the anger rolling off Fi's body and I put my arm around her shoulders and held on tight, reminding her not to beat this guy's ass.

I shook my head. "Well, I'll just find your girls for you then. I found you, didn't I?" John shook his head and laughed.

"You found me with the PI's help. Plus, I don't trust someone to find my kids who can't even keep his own drug operation safe from the cops. Give me the number or we have no deal." I had John reeled in pretty good. I shook my head like I was really upset and I looked up.

"Fine, you got a pen and paper? His name is Chuck Finley and he only takes clients through referrals. I'll have to go with you to make the introductions." Laura handed me a pen and paper and I put 'Chucks' phone number down on it followed by my number. "I think I better call first because he knows me, and then I'll call you after I set up a meeting. Sound good?"

"Fine." John paused for a second. "If you screw me on this, I'll make sure the cops find your asses. Got me?"

I looked at Fi and nodded. "Yeah, we got you. What do you say, honey?" Fi smiled up at me in agreement.

We seemed to have reached a shaky agreement. "Alright, now get out of here and call me later when you set up the meeting." He opened the front door and gestured for us to leave. We walked out and he slammed the front door. After a quick glance behind me, I could tell John and Laura were watching us.

"They're watching." I muttered to Fi.

Fi smiled and laughed. "Let's put on a show then." Before I could react, Fi had jumped in my arms and she was kissing me for all she was worth. I played along, and after I was sure they wouldn't be watching anymore I pulled away from Fi. We were both a little breathless as we got in the Charger, and after we were safely out of view from the house, I turned to her with a scowl.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, _Dina_." Fi looked at me with a wry smile.

"Oh, it wasn't? I'm so sorry about that, _Donnie_." Fi gave me an 'I'm innocent' look and I had to smile.

**A/N: I worked really hard on this chapter, I hope you enjoy it! Also, thanks so much to those who have been reviewing, I really enjoy reading your comments . I would love to hear from more people though! **

**CGB2010 **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: WOW! It certainly has been a while, and I'm very sorry for the wait for anybody who has been waiting for an update. I got a little stuck with the plot, so I had to let this story stew for a while. I'm back on track now though so I should be finishing up relatively soon. Happy reading and reviewing!**

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 9

Michael Westen's POV

When Fi and I walked in to my mother's house, we were greeted by a strange sight. Abby, Meghan and my mother were huddled together in the kitchen baking cookies by the looks of it. My mother never baked anything, so it was odd to see the three of them so thoroughly engrossed in mixing and measuring. They didn't even notice we walked in the door so I cleared my throat loudly. My mother looked up and smiled. "Abby's teaching me how to bake cookies! Whenever I do it myself it comes out all wrong but I'm sure you know that, Michael."

"That's great, ma." I replied. Abby was staring at Fi and I intently and I knew she was dying to know how our meeting went. Fi seemed to notice this as well. I motioned for Abby to come talk to me and she stepped out of the kitchen.

"Why don't I take over for you, Abby?" Fi took Abby's place to help my mom and Meghan.

Abby's little sister was covered in flour and she grinned at us. "Abby makes the best cookies! She let me measure the flour." She said proudly. Meghan continued a continuous conversation with Fi and my mom and we could hear them talking while Abby and I walked towards the living room. We sat down on the couch and I looked at Abby.

"How are you feeling?" She touched her face nervously and avoided my eyes and I instantly regretted asking.

"I'll be fine. Your mom could tell I was nervous so she suggested we bake cookies. I didn't know her baking skills weren't exactly up to par." Abby smiled, clearly wanting to change the subject. "So what happened at the meeting?" Abby asked, getting right to the point.

"Everything went fine. Your dad was skeptical at first but after some convincing we got him to agree to meet with Sam. I'm going to give him a call later today and we'll set up a meeting so we can keep this thing rolling. I need to make your dad feel like I'm desperate to get rid of the drugs, so this plan will come together very fast." Abby wrung her hands nervously together, and I could tell she was feeling very anxious.

"What can I do?" She asked, clearly hoping to be needed.

I inwardly shook my head at her willingness to put herself in harm's way. "You can just stay at the house and relax for now, Abby. You've already done your part by getting yourself and your sister out of that house. It's up to Sam, Fi and I to finish the job now. We just have to take this one step at a time." Abby nodded, but I could tell she was disappointed she couldn't help.

"Thanks you so much for doing all this; I know it hasn't been easy. Just let me know if I can do anything to help." I nodded and Abby stood up and walked towards the kitchen. It was amazing to me that Abby and Meghan could be so much different than their parents. Where John and Laura were angry and hurtful, Abby and Meghan were happy and loving. Both girls had experienced so much adversity, yet they were still willing to trust in me to help them. I pulled out my phone and dialed Sam's number and got to work.

A couple hours later, Sam and I sat in a booth at a local diner waiting for John to show up. I called him saying I had tracked down the private investigator and he agreed to meet us. Sam was sitting across from me in the booth and he was pulling at his tie uncomfortably. "I hate dressin' up for this stuff, Mikey. This tie feels like a noose."

"You look good in a suit, Sam." I looked towards the door just in time to see John walking in. "He's here." Sam and I immediately went into character; me looking nervous and fidgety and Sam looking cool and calm. I stood up when John got to our table and smiled nervously. "Hey, man, thanks for comin'." We sat in the booth and I pointed at Sam. "This is Chuck Finley, he's the best PI in Miami. Ain't that right Chuck?"

Sam gave a small smile. "Tone it down, Donnie. Who's this guy?"

"This is my buddy, John –" Before I could continue, John cut me off. He was fixing Sam with a hard stare.

"Look Guy, I need help finding my daughters and this guy said you could do it. Is that true?" John was clearly all business.

Sam shifted in his seat and moved forward. "Sure I can do it, but it'll cost you." John looked at me and raised his eyebrows.

"I ain't paying for this, so you better figure something out if you want me to take those drugs off your hands." I nodded hastily.

"Yeah yeah, I'll pay whatever Chuck asks for as long as you keep your promise." John shrugged.

"I'm not takin' those drugs off your hands until I get my girls back." He was clearly digging in his heels.

I shook my head furiously. "That's not what we agreed on! I introduced you to Chuck and now you take the drugs!" John was about to respond but Sam cut him off.

"I don't want to listen to you two bicker. I offered you my services and you either say yes or no." Sam paused and glared daggers at me. "It sounds like you doubt my skills, Donnie."

Sam started cracking his knuckles and I shook my head furiously. "You got it all wrong, Chuck! I just wanna get these drugs off my hands, it's not that I don't think you'll find 'em. Trust me!"

Sam nodded. "Alright then. So do we have a deal or not?"

John looked at me. "I'll take those drugs only when I have my girls back." I put my head down and took a deep breath like I was really thinking about it.

I looked up at Sam. "Find the girls and I'll pay."

Sam nodded. "Alright, fine. I'll need some pictures though so I know who I'm looking for. Are the girls missing or did they run?" John nodded and pulled a couple pictures out of his pocket.

The pictures he had were school photos of Abby and Meghan. Sam pulled out a notebook to take notes. "The one on the left is Meghan, she's the youngest and then Abby is the one on the right. They ran away a couple days ago."

Sam chuckled. "Trouble in paradise?"

John wasn't amused. "None of your business. My daughter thought she could outsmart me and she's got another thing coming when I get my hands on her."

Sam pointed out the gash on Johns face from when Abby scratched him. "She make that mark on your face?"

John nodded. "Yeah, I found her at the school the other day and she got away before I could get her into the car. I think she's got someone helping her." My heart skipped a beat and Sam paused from his writing to look up.

"What makes you think that?" He asked.

John shrugged. "She was talking on a phone I didn't give her, and she just disappeared after she got away from me. I think someone picked her up." John couldn't possibly know it was me who picked her up so I tried to relax.

Sam wrote some more in his notebook and then stood up from the booth. "I think I have enough information. It sounds like the girls are still in the area so I'll give you a call when I find something." Sam was exchanging numbers with John when I stopped them.

"Hang on just one second. I'm the one paying for this so you'll be talkin' to me, not him. Then I'll know when the job is done and I can get rid of my stuff." Sam rolled his eyes.

"Fine, I'll contact both of you. Happy?" I nodded and we went our separate ways. I walked a couple of blocks and Sam was waiting for me in his car.

"I think that went well." I said to Sam as I got in the car. Sam laughed.

"Yeah, it would have gone better if you weren't such a whiner about all the details." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah well I had to come off desperate. You should talk, you were taking notes like he was giving you directions to the nearest bar." Sam chuckled at that.

"So what should we do next? I was thinking we let him stew for a couple days and then call him back." I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we'll wait a few days and then call him. We'll have to figure out a way to convince him Abby is calling the Feds on him." Sam smiled.

"I got the perfect thing. Let's take a few pictures of Abby talking to some agents then. We'll get her to talk to Agent Harris and Agent Lane. It'll be easy to find them since they're always following you around. Then we show the pictures to John and the chaos ensues. Hopefully they'll be outta here by next week." The plan was simple but it could work.

"Alright, Abby will be happy to do something to help out. We'll just have to play it by ear and see how John reacts to the pictures. You never know what he'll say. I just hope he doesn't need further convincing." I shook my head at all the different things that could go wrong. "This is the most disorganized operation I've ever done."

Sam just shrugged. "If it works, what's the difference?"

Abby Gorham's POV

"Michael, I'm not sure about this. I don't even know those people." I was sitting in the back seat of the Charger with Meghan and Michael and Sam were in the front. Meghan had fallen asleep in the backseat, so we all talked in quiet voices. I was staring out into the crowded beachfront at the two FBI agents that Michael wanted us to go talk to.

"Abby, all you have to do is go up to them and ask for directions. It just has to look like you're talking to them so we can get pictures." We had been driving around all day taking pictures of me and Meghan walking in and out of different government buildings and police stations so Sam would have plenty of pictures to show to my dad. Now the last stop of the day was tracking down two FBI agents that had been following Michael around, and getting pictures of me talking to them.

"How long do I have to talk to them?" I asked.

Michael shrugged. "No more than thirty seconds. They won't know you know me so don't worry about that."

I looked at Meghan sleeping soundly next to me. "Should I wake Meghan up?"

Michael shook his head. "She's in enough pictures so she doesn't need to go. Just meet us over there by the marina. We'll be parked on the right hand side." Michael opened the door so I could get out and put a hand on my shoulder. "This is the last thing you'll need to do, Abby. You did great today." I just nodded and walked away. I wasn't sure how to respond to his comment because I didn't get praised for doing a good job very often. I never received a pat on the back from my father for anything. It felt so good to be around people who cared about Meghan and me.

The two FBI agents were sitting by their car pretending to read the newspaper when I walked up. "Excuse me?" I asked. They both looked up at me. "I'm just a little lost. How do I get to Kingston Street from here?" I put my hands up in frustration. "I've been walking around for about an hour now and I just can't find it."

One of the men smiled. "You just go up about two blocks and it's the second intersection you come to." I nodded in understanding.

I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket, "You know I am just terrible with directions! Can you please write that down for me?" I handed the paper to one of the men.

The guy looked at me like I was an idiot but proceeded to jot down the directions. "Here you go. Good luck." He said as he handed me my directions. I almost had a heart attack when I looked at what he wrote: _We know you're with Westen. Cut the crap_.

I just gave a small chuckle and tried to keep my composure. "You're really helping me out of a tough spot." Both agents looked at me quizzically and I walked off before they could say anything. I hoped Sam had gotten enough pictures because it would be very embarrassing to have to go back. Knowing that I didn't have to put on a show for the agents, I just walked straight to the car.

Michael looked at me like I was stupid as I opened the door and got into the Charger. "What was that, Abby? Now they will know who you are!"

"It's no use. They already knew." I handed Michael the piece of paper. "I don't think they care, otherwise they would have stopped me, right?"

Michael shook his head at the note, "I guess not. Well we got everything we need so let's head back to my mom's house." I smiled and put my seatbelt on, trying not to wake Meghan. It felt great to know we had taken one more step towards getting rid of my parents forever.


	10. Chapter 10

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 10

Michael Westen's POV

A couple days later, I found myself in John and Laura's dingy living room on a couch with one arm around Fiona and my phone held to my ear with the other, making a phone call to Sam. "Yeah, Chuck, we're all waitin' for you. When you gonna be here with the good news?"

Sam chuckled on the other line and I was thankful nobody in the room could hear what he was saying. "Your southern accent is making my head hurt, Mikey. I'm walking in the door in two minutes and I got all the pictures ready."

I smiled and gave a thumbs up to everyone in the room. "Alright, sounds great." I flipped my phone shut and took a deep breath. "He'll be here in a minute." John just grunted and Laura was fixing me with a hard stare. We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes while we waited, and I was relieved when I heard the sound of the doorbell. John got up to answer it, and he came back with Sam in tow. Once everyone was seated again, Sam took out the envelope with all the pictures we had taken the other day.

"I have some good news and some bad news, guys. The good news is I found the girls." Before Sam could go on, John leaned forward in his seat and cut him off.

"Where the hell are they?" He practically shouted.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Well, if you'll let me continue I'll tell you." John nodded and Sam went on. "I actually found them by luck. I was eating lunch at this nice little Mexican place and I saw the older girl enter the Miami police station with the younger girl. I was hot on their tail after that, and what I saw wasn't pretty." Sam handed the pictures to John and Laura. "Take a look at these pictures."

Sam, Fi and I all looked at each other tensely while John and Laura looked at the pictures, and finally, after a couple minutes, they both looked up. "What the hell is that girl doing?" John looked dumbstruck.

"Let me see the pictures, I paid for 'em." I cut in. John tossed me the envelope and I pretended to be looking at the pictures with Fiona while Sam explained more to John and Laura.

"Well, it looks to me like your daughter is turning you in. She and her sister went into at least three different government buildings and talked to officers. Looks like she's blabbing about your drug operation to the feds." I looked up from the pictures to stare at John and Laura, and Fiona laughed.

"Looks like your girl is smarter than you think, buddy." I laughed right along with Fi, and waited for a reaction.

John was shaking his head vehemently. "Nah, I don't believe any of this shit for a second. That girl is as dumb as a box of rocks; she would never think to do this." I felt Fiona tense, and I gripped her arm tightly to remind her not to attack John.

Sam shrugged. "Looks like she's doing it pretty well in the pictures, don't you think?"

"These are just pictures! I'm not just gonna pick up and run away because I see a few pictures of my girls goin' into some buildings. I wanna see them firsthand before I believe anything." This was exactly what I had hoped would not happen. Sam and I briefly made eye contact, and I hoped he was picking up that I didn't know what to do. Sam would have to dictate what happened next.

Sam paused for a millisecond, and then he smiled and pointed his finger at John. "You're a smart one there, Guy. I can probably track down the girls again now that I know where they are going, and I'll call you when I find them." He pointed at me and John. "You two can meet me, and you'll see firsthand what they're up to." John nodded, and Sam turned back to me. "Don't think for a second this won't cost you extra though, Donnie. It'll take a little time to track them down again."

Fiona answered before I could say anything. "It's fine, the sooner this is over, the better. Ain't that right, Donnie?"

I put my arms out like I was really put out. "You act like I'm freakin' moneybags Donald Trump, honey!"

Fiona sighed and kissed me on the cheek. Then she turned to Sam and winked. "He's just bein' a drama queen." I rolled my eyes, and when Sam turned his head I could tell he was hiding a smile.

"Alright, so it's settled. I'll call you when I find the girls, and we'll meet again." Sam stood up from his chair and walked towards the door. He paused when he reached the front hall and turned back. "Oh, and don't try to be a hero and find the girls before I do or else the feds will be on to you." After Sam exited, we all just looked at each other for a few minutes before anyone said anything.

John was clearly fuming, and I could tell he was ready to blow his lid off. Suddenly he stood up and pointed towards the door. "Leave."

Fiona and I both stood up at the same time. "Alright, alright. We'll see ya when we see ya." I grabbed Fi's hand and we walked out of the house. Once we were a safe distance away, Fiona spoke up.

"I don't like this, Michael. If we put Abby and Meghan anywhere near that man, they'll be in danger." Fi was fired up, I could tell from the tone of her voice.

"Fi, we don't have a choice. That's what happens when you have to make a plan on the fly like this. Sometimes we have to do things we aren't comfortable with. We'll try to control as much as we possibly can, and hopefully everything will work out." Fi huffed and we kept on walking. Even though I tried to tell myself this would all work out, I knew we were in trouble.

Abby, Fi, Sam and I sat around my mom's kitchen table the night before our plan was about to take place. We were going over the instructions for about the millionth time, and I was exhausted. I had to make sure we had everything in order before tomorrow. "Okay, Abby, run me through it again.

Abby nodded and rattled off her instructions. "Meghan and I are dropped off at the Miami police station at 9:00 in the morning. We walk in the station and pretend to be waiting for someone. We stay there for twenty minutes before we walk out of the police station, and across the street to the marina. Once we're there, we take a walk around the marina, and leave after that. We walk to the gas station at Grove and Maple, and wait there for Fiona to pick us up."

"Good. Now here's what'll happen." I pointed to Sam. "Sam, you'll call John at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and say you found the girls. You'll tell John that you've already called me and I insisted on coming. I'll meet John at his house and we'll drive together. We'll meet you right across the street from the police station, and that's when we'll watch for Abby and Meghan. Once they come out, we'll watch some more and hopefully John will be convinced. I can pull the paranoia card as much as possible to get him to think the feds are watching us, and if we're lucky, Abby's parents will be gone by tomorrow night."

Sam shrugged. "Sounds like a piece of cake, Brother."

Fi sat back in her chair and threw her head back in disgust. "There are so many holes in this plan, it's unbelievable. I say we go over to the house right now, and blow – "

"Fi, not now." I cut Fi off with a warning glare. Talking about blowing her parents to smithereens in front of Abby would be too much. I ignored Fi's murderous look and turned to Abby. "Think you can handle this?"

Abby nodded confidently. "I'll do whatever I have to do."

As I hurriedly walked up the front steps to Abby's house, I sent a silent prayer up that this plan would work out. The door slammed open before I could even knock, and John rushed out. "Let's go." He said. He got in his car, and I hopped into the passenger's seat.

"I get the feeling like we shouldn't be doing this." I started, about five minutes into the drive. We were nearing the police station, and I wanted to start the paranoia early.

"What are you talking about?" John asked. He was distracted, and I could tell he was thinking about Abby and Meghan.

"What if this is a trap? The feds could be watching the building; they might be looking for you right now!" John just grunted in response and we kept on driving. Before I knew it, we had pulled into a spot right next to Sam, and he was waving at us to roll down the windows.

"Alright guys. The girls are inside the police station right now. Let's watch the doors, they could be coming out any minute." We all sat in silence for the next fifteen minutes while we watched the door. I prayed Abby knew what she was doing. She was a smart girl and I knew she knew exactly what she was supposed to do, but there were a lot of variables we couldn't control. My heart skipped a beat when I saw them come out the front door, and John jumped in his seat.

"There they are!" Abby and Meghan had walked out with two other officers, and they appeared to be talking about something. To me, it looked like a friendly conversation, but to John, it probably looked like something far worse. "This is insane; I can't believe she's doing this."

I nodded my head in agreement. "This shit is real!" I saw a police cruiser driving by, and I immediately ducked my head. John followed suit. "Oh, man they're for sure after us! They probably know everything about you, man!" I had planted the seed of paranoia, and John was completely freaking out. I turned to Sam, who was sitting in his car staring into ours, and nodded to him when John wasn't looking. "What should we do, Chuck?"

Sam shrugged. "I say you both get outta here. It's just a matter of time before this whole thing blows open." At this point, Abby and Meghan were crossing the street again and heading for the gas station. I had to get John to leave, and I had to do it soon.

John looked like he was on another planet, he was so deep in thought. "Did you hear that, man? We gotta go!" John put the car in drive, and as we left the parking spot, I gave one last glance at Sam. I had no idea what John was thinking, but I knew it wasn't good. As a spy, you usually have a pretty good idea when someone is about to do something rash. John was tapping the wheel furiously with his fingers and blinking rapidly.

Suddenly, he turned to me. "I can't do this, man. I gotta know who she's working with. I'm going after them. Maybe I can grab the girls without the feds noticing." I shook my head frantically, but John went on. "I'm not going down without a fight." John turned the car around, and we began driving back towards the direction Abby and Meghan were walking.

"You don't wanna do this, John. Just cut your losses and leave this place! If you stick around, you and I are both gonna get caught." John was beyond reason, and I knew my words weren't getting through at all. We continued driving, and my heart sank when we spotted Abby and Meghan, walking down a side street about a block away from the gas station. They had no idea what was about to happen, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I frantically thought about what I could do, and I was coming up blank. I couldn't stop this without blowing my cover, and if I did that, the whole thing would be over. John suddenly sped up, and I glanced over at him in shock. "What the hell, man?" I asked, for once being truly serious.

"I'll ruin this if they see me. Let's just go." John's statement made me feel uneasy, but I didn't say anything. I needed to figure out if he had something up his sleeve, but I couldn't be too obvious about it. As a spy, there's nothing worse than realizing that something may be going on right under your nose that you know nothing about.

"What are you plannin' on doing?" I asked, hoping for some answers.

"I'm planning on goin' home to talk to my wife, and after I take your drugs I never wanna see your face again. This was a stupid idea of yours to come all the way down here and now we're all in trouble." My stomach dropped. John was playing his cards close to the chest, and it would be too suspicious if I kept asking questions. He was taking my 'drugs' and I should be happy.

"Yeah, whatever. Sounds like you got a lot on your plate. Soon as I give you my stash, me and Dina are outta here." As we neared the house, I put my head back on the seat and sighed in frustration. We would have to keep a close eye on John for the next couple hours just to make sure him and Laura were really leaving town.

…

Twenty minutes later, we were all back at the loft. Meghan was taking a nap on the couch, and Abby, Fi and I were standing on the balcony talking. "So how did it go, Abby?" I asked. I had already expressed my concerns about John to Fi while Abby was getting Meghan situated on the couch, and we both agreed we needed to pump Abby for any information we might have missed today.

Abby shrugged. "It went fine, Michael. You saw us while we were at the police station, and then the walk went fine. Nothing to report. So how did it go with my dad?" I glanced at Fi, and she shrugged.

"It went fine. He seemed pretty spooked, and Sam is watching the house right now, so we'll know when they decide what to do. I'm feeling confident they'll skip town." I prayed I wouldn't eat my words, but something about all this didn't seem right.

Abby smiled. "I'm trying not to get too excited. I'll celebrate when they're actually gone." I just nodded, still feeling the strange sensation I got when something wasn't right.

Abby Gorham's POV

After Michael talked to me about what had happened with my dad, not much happened. I sat and watched Michael and Fiona clean their guns while Meghan slept on the couch. Michael got several status updates from Sam, and he said my parents hadn't left the house since my father got back. That was a little disheartening, but I had to keep my hopes up. I trusted that Michael, Sam and Fiona knew what they were doing.

After Meghan woke up, Michael drove us back to Mrs. Westen's house with the promise that he would call as soon as something happened. Meghan of course didn't really know what was going on, so she was happy to play games and color pictures with Mrs. Westen, but I was so nervous I couldn't sit still. I went upstairs to the room I was sleeping in so I could lie down for a little bit, and I must have closed my eyes for a couple minutes, because I next sound I heard was Mrs. Westen knocking on the door. "Abby?" She asked.

I shot out of bed and opened the door. "Did something happen?"

Mrs. Westen chuckled and shook her head. "Everything's fine, honey. I was just coming up to tell you I'm going next door for a little while. Your sister is downstairs watching TV."

I nodded and smiled. "Okay, I'll go downstairs and join her." I followed Mrs. Westen down the stairs and waved goodbye when she walked out the door. Meghan grinned when she saw me.

"Abby, where were you?" She asked. I sat down on the couch next to her and she snuggled up to me.

"I was upstairs taking a little nap, Meg." Meghan just nodded, and we sat in silence for a while, watching the TV. I noticed Meghan flipping something around in her hand, and I looked down at her to get a closer look. "What are you playing with?" I asked.

Meghan handed me what looked like a little black disk. "I found it in my pocket. Is it yours?"

My heart sank as I looked at the foreign object. It was definitely not anything I owned, and it had a blinking red light on it. I racked my brains, trying to figure out why Meghan would have something like this, and then I remembered. A man had accidentally bumped into her when we were walking by the police station, and I had thought nothing of it. What if it was some sort of tracker? I immediately pulled out my cell phone and dialed Michael's number. "Hello?" Michael answered almost right away.

"Michael, I found this black thing that Meghan was playing with and she said she found it in her pocket. It has a blinking red light and I think it's bad." I was rushing, but I had a strange creeping feeling in my stomach.

"Whoa, whoa slow down, Abby. I can't hear you very well when you talk so fast. What did you find?" I took a deep breath to steady myself, and then started again.

"I found a black circular object with a red blinking light. It looks like a computer chip." I spoke slower so Michael could hear every word.

"We're coming, hold tight." I was panicked by now, and before I could respond there was a very loud bang and the front door slammed open. I dropped the phone and stared at the doorway in shock.


	11. Chapter 11

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 11

Michael Westen's POV

I pushed the Charger to its limits as Fi and I raced to my mom's house. Something wasn't right and I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. "I knew something like this was gonna happen, Fi. Everything went too smoothly today." I pounded the steering wheel in frustration, mentally berating myself for being so careless.

"Michael, we won't know until we get there, so just calm down. Sam told us he didn't see anyone leave Abby's house tonight, so it's still possible they're okay." It was strange for Fi to be the level headed one for once, but she hadn't made a huge mistake like I had. I knew John was up to something, but I didn't figure it out until too late.

"This is on me, Fi," I said, admitting it to her and myself. We were about a mile away from the house now, and Fi was getting her shotgun ready.

"I'll go to the back of the house, and you go through the front door. Hopefully nothing is wrong." Fi was trying to ease the situation, but she didn't sound convinced either. A couple minutes later, we pulled up to the house. It had been about fifteen minutes since Abby called me. My heart dropped when I saw the front door was wide open. I hopped out of the Charger and sprinted towards the front door while Fi went around back. I grabbed my gun, and readied myself before I went in.

The sight I saw shocked me. Meghan was sitting on the floor near the front door sobbing, and the living room looked to be a total mess. I immediately scanned the room for any sign of Abby, but she wasn't there. Fi burst into the room after coming in through the back door and shook her head at me. I put my gun away and hurriedly stepped closer to Meghan, checking her over for any visible sign of injury. She looked to be unharmed, but she was clearly beyond words at the moment.

I wasn't sure how I could comfort her, so I settled for awkwardly touching her shoulder. "Meghan?" I asked. She looked up at me with her blue eyes full of tears and held her arms out. I knew what that meant, so I picked her up off the floor and held her in my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck and put her head on my shoulder. Her little body was shaking like a leaf, and I could tell she was trying to talk to me, but nothing was coming out very coherently. I gave Fiona an exasperated look, but she looked just as out of her element as I was. I patted Meghan on the back, trying to calm her down. "Try to relax, Meghan. I need to know what happened."

We didn't have much time to waste if we wanted to find Abby. Meghan took a few shaky breaths, and her words came out sounding much clearer. "Daddy came and took Abby! Abby told me to run when he opened the door, so I did but I was watching from the kitchen."

Meghan paused, and she was sobbing again. She had her arms wrapped so tightly around my neck that it felt like a noose but I didn't mind. If it helped her to tell me what happened, I would tolerate it. "It's alright, Meghan. We're going to find her. Tell me what you saw when you were watching from the kitchen."

"Daddy was really mad, and when he's mad he hits. Daddy hit Abby in the head really hard, and she fell down. She didn't get up and I wanted to help her, but Abby tells me never to go by daddy when he's mad. When daddy saw Abby was sleeping, he picked her up and took her away. I heard him say he was going home to pick up mommy." I looked at Fi with what I was sure was an expression of horror, and she looked right back at me with a murderous glare.

"How long ago did they leave?" I asked Meghan.

I could feel her shrug in my arms. "Like five minutes before you got here."

"Go get my mom from next door, Fi. We need to leave." Fi ran out the back door, and I transferred Meghan from my arms to the couch. She seemed to have stopped crying, but now it just looked like she was in shock. She was still shaking and she was white as a sheet. I was feeling a little shell-shocked myself. Abby sacrificed a lot to get her sister out of harm's way, and it reminded me eerily of my childhood. I had had similar rules regarding my father with Nate when we were younger.

"Are you gonna find her?" Meghan was staring at me from her spot on the couch.

"I know we're going to find her, Meghan. My mom is going to come back and stay with you, and Fi and I have to leave. Are you going to be okay?" Abby's poor sister was clearly not okay, but with any luck, we would be able to get to Abby's father before the situation got worse.

Before Meghan could respond, Fi and my mother came in through the back door. My mother came right up to me. "Call the police, Michael!"

I huffed, exasperated that I had to explain myself while Abby needed me. "What would I say, Ma? This girl's father and legal guardian came and kidnapped her from my house? No, we would be stuck in court and at best Meghan and Abby would be put in some foster home."

She nodded, but gripped my arm tightly. "Michael, you better find that girl." I just nodded, and my mother let go of me and picked Meghan up off the couch.

Once we were back in the Charger, I called Sam. "Yeah, Mike." He answered after a few seconds.

"Sam, John broke into my mother's house and took Abby. I'm pretty sure he'll be coming back to the house so you need to keep an eye out. I don't know what he's planning on doing with her but I do know he hurt her. Sounds like he knocked her unconscious." While I talked, I started driving in the direction of Abby's house.

"Oh my god, Mikey this is not good. I thought they were packing up the house to leave, but now it seems like they planned on taking Abby with them. I can't believe I missed him slipping out of the house!" Sam was just as angry as we were.

"Well, we're in luck because it appears John will be coming back to the house to pick up his wife and get some belongings. We're on our way to the house right now; once he gets there; make sure you don't let him out of your sight." John was probably about ten minutes ahead of us.

"You got it, brother." Sam hung up, and I threw my phone on the dashboard while I drove.

"What do you think, Fi?" Fi knew I was talking about how we should approach the house once we knew Abby's father was in there.

"Well, we need to be careful because we won't know where John has Abby. Chances are Abby will be close to John, so we can't go in there guns blazing." Fi looked at me for support.

"I agree. John won't let Abby out of his sight. We'll have to surprise him." Fi gave me the ghost of a smile.

"Well, it's lucky we're good at surprises then, huh?"

Abby Gorham's POV

I slowly opened my eyes, and I was staring at the roof of a car. The car was moving, and my body was jostling around in the backseat. Every bump was causing a shooting pain in my head, and I slowly raised my arm to check where I was hurt. When I touched the large bump on my temple, I gasped and everything came rushing back.

We had been at Mrs. Westen's house and my father had shown up. Everything was a little hazy after that, but I knew I must have been knocked unconscious because I didn't remember getting in the car. I turned my head to look at the driver's seat, and my heart sank when I saw my father. I tried to sit up, but I was rewarded with a dizzy spell that made me want to throw up. Every move that I made seemed to be delayed, and I had to force myself not to fall back asleep. As the car moved along, I prayed that Michael would find me.

A couple seconds later, it occurred to me that Meghan had been at the house too. I felt around the backseat, but it was clear she wasn't there. "Meghan?" My voice came out sounding raspy and weak.

My father looked back at me with a nasty smile on his face. "She ain't here, girl." He turned back toward the road, and I put an arm over my eyes to try and stop the dizziness. The bright street lights were making my head spin even more than it already was. I hoped my little sister was safe, but I didn't have the energy to think about it anymore. I must have fallen asleep, because I snapped awake when the passenger door opened. My eyes opened to the sight of my father staring down at me. "Home sweet home."

His voice sounded so amplified that he could have been talking into a megaphone. My dad grabbed me under the arms and began dragging me out of the car. The sudden rapid movement made my stomach turn, and I quickly turned my head so I could throw up all over the curb and my dad's shoes. "What the hell, Abby?" He exclaimed as he dropped me on the grass. I grabbed my head to try and stop it from spinning, but I didn't get a chance to get a hold of myself before my father threw me over his shoulder and walked towards the house.

I felt like throwing up again as my head bobbed up and down while my father walked, but I forced myself to hold it in. The last thing I needed was for my father to lose his temper. He unceremoniously dropped me onto the couch and I was thankful to not be moving anymore. I stared straight up at the ceiling, trying to get the room to come into focus. "She's a mess, John." I heard the sound of my mother's voice and I turned my head.

"She'll be fine in a few minutes, Laura. Would you rather she run away again?" I didn't hear what my mother said in response, but I knew the pounding in my head and extreme dizziness wasn't something that would go away in a few minutes. After a few minutes of lying on the couch, I decided I needed to sit up before I fell asleep again. The sooner I sat up, the better I would be able to defend myself. I pushed myself up so I was sitting normally, and the dizziness and pounding in my head seemed to ease up a little.

My parents seemed to be putting a lot of our belongings on the floor by the door, and I could tell they were getting ready to leave. I assumed the reason I was here was that they were planning to take me with them, and I wished I could just run out the door. I knew I could never make it considering I couldn't even walk at the moment, so I settled for staring at the front door longingly.

Even though I was sitting up on the couch, the feeling that I wanted to go to sleep still wasn't going away. I figured I would be sitting on the couch for at least another couple minutes, so I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes. It was so much easier not to be alert, and I wished I could just drift away. I heard footsteps coming my way, and a hand grabbed my arm. "Let's go," my father was pulling me up off the couch. "You better not throw up on me again, Abby."

I just shook my head. The pace my father was setting as we walked towards the door was fast and furious, and my current state couldn't seem to handle it. It was too hard for me to walk when I could barely stand up, but my dad didn't seem to care. We had gotten about halfway to the door when it burst open. Michael had his gun pointed at my parents, and it was clear they were totally caught off guard. My dad threw an arm around my neck and dragged me back further into the house. Michael stepped closer to us and cocked the gun. "Let her go, John. There's no way you're getting out of this."

"Not who you said you were, eh Donnie?" My father asked. His arm tightened around my throat and I coughed, fighting for more air.

"Guess not. I'm the guy you just managed to royally piss off. I've been helping your daughters to try and get you two out of their lives, but you just can't seem to go away. Now, I believe I told you to let her go. I'm losing my patience." Michael stepped closer to my parents, and they took a couple steps back in response.

My dad huffed and pushed me away from him. I tried to catch my balance, but I felt like I had just stepped off a tilt-a-whirl, and the ground came rushing up to greet me. Before my head hit the ground, I saw Michael reach for me out of the corner of my eye, and he managed to grab my arm before I hit the floor. He lowered me to the floor, but before he could let go, I heard rushing feet behind me. Michael let go of me and I covered my head to avoid getting hit again. I heard the sounds of a struggle for a couple seconds after that, and then a particularly loud punch. After that I turned my head to see what had happened, and Michael was on his feet, gun in hand, while my father was on the floor grabbing his face. "Boy am I glad I got a chance to do that," Michael kicked my father so he was lying on his back. "Don't like how it feels, huh John? I guess you know how your daughter feels now."

My dad scowled and got to his feet, moving to the other side of the room. "You got no right to be involved in this. They're our kids and we'll do what we want with them."

"I have every right, John. It's my job to make sure you never hurt these girls again," Michael paused and took a deep breath. "Here's what I'm offering. You get your lives in exchange for a promise that you'll never come back here again or try to contact Abby or Meghan." Fiona cocked her gun, and my parents jumped. "Do we have an agreement?"

My dad thought about it for a few seconds. "You think this is that simple?"

Michael shrugged. "Well, yeah. I'm giving you a chance to keep your lives! Doesn't seem like a very tough decision to me."

My dad seemed to pause for a few seconds. "She's just a stupid girl. Why do you care about this?"

Michael shifted his weight impatiently. "It was actually a total chance encounter that I even met your daughter. I saw what she was doing, and I knew it was something she shouldn't have been involved in. I offered her my help and she had the courage to accept; now a little more than two weeks later, here we are. Isn't it funny how you can underestimate your _stupid_ children sometimes? Now, do we have an agreement or not?"

My dad grudgingly nodded his head. "Whatever. Can we go now?" That was all I needed to hear before I tuned out. It seemed like this was finally coming to an end, and I would be safe. Being alert suddenly seemed too hard, and I closed my eyes, not even caring that I was lying on our dirty living room floor. After what seemed like a few seconds, I was being shaken awake and when I opened my eyes, Michael was staring intently at me.

"Abby? Abby? Your parents are gone." I gave a casual nod and I saw Fiona come up behind Michael.

"You weren't here two seconds ago." I told Fi.

"She's totally out of it, Michael." Fiona looked worried, and it made me panic. Didn't she know how hard it was to stay awake?

"Getting hit in the head will do that to you, Fi. Abby, look at me." I shifted my gaze toward Michael, and he tilted my head up and looked into my eyes and then he prodded at the bump on the side of my head. "Looks like a concussion. Let's get her out of here." He determined after a few seconds.

"Where's Meghan? He said she wasn't here." I looked around the house for any sign of my sister.

"She's at the house with my mom. She's perfectly fine, Abby. You were very brave." Michael grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, keeping a tight grip on my elbow. I felt like I had been spinning in circles for about five minutes, and I was swaying dangerously. "You're not ready to walk yet." Michael quickly determined. He scooped me into his arms, and we walked out the door.

"I'm too heavy." I said, feeling embarrassed.

Michael laughed. "No, you're really not. When we get back to the house we'll get some ice for that bump on your head, and you can sleep."

I jumped the gun on the sleeping part, and I nodded off about two minutes after we started driving.


	12. Chapter 12

A Chance Encounter: Chapter 12

_Abby Gorham's POV_

One month later…

"I think we're late." I declared when we pulled into the parking lot of Little Marlin Park. I looked out into the little baseball field and spotted Meghan at second base, looking cute as ever in her little tee ball uniform. She had a look of intense concentration on her face, which was uncharacteristic of my little sister. Michael, Sam, and Fi looked out at the field.

Sam gave a wave of his hand. "Maddie saved a spot for us so it's no big deal."

I ran a hand nervously through my hair. "This is the first game though." I was trying to start off on the right foot, and being late didn't fit into my plans.

Michael put an arm around my shoulders as we walked towards the field. "Abby, don't worry about it. I'm sure Meghan won't care that you missed the first five minutes."

I looked at the bleachers and then back at Michael. "Looks like a lot of the parents are on time."

Michael frowned. "Trust me, we're fine. You need to lighten up a little, Abby. You're doing a great job with Meghan, and we're all here to help you."

I smiled as we approached the bleachers. This past month had been filled with a lot of major changes, and I frequently found myself worrying about the little things a little too much. It was nice to have Michael, Sam, Fi, and Mrs. Westen to bring me back to reality every now and then. Mrs. Westen smiled and waved as we walked up. "You made it!"

We filed into the bleachers, and as soon as we were seated, Mrs. Westen started talking to Michael. "Michael, I need you to come over and fix my VCR. I can't get the damn thing to turn on."

Michael rolled his eyes. "Mom, you're about ten years behind on technology. Why don't you just go to the store and buy a DVD player?"

"Then I can't play my exercise tapes! Abby knows what I'm talking about." Mrs. Westen and Michael both turned to look at me.

I didn't want to get in the middle of an argument, so I turned towards the game. "Go Meghan!" I shouted. Meghan heard my voice and waved at me from her position in the field.

Michael and Mrs. Westen kept arguing, but I tuned them out and watched the game. Fiona turned to me and smiled. "So is baseball similar to cricket?"

I shrugged. "I don't know what cricket is, so I couldn't tell you." Before Fiona could respond, the woman who was sitting behind us cleared her throat loudly.

"It's hard to pay attention to the game with all this talking." She stared at all of us, and I instantly grew embarrassed. Fi's head snapped back to glare at the woman.

"You think? Well it's hard for me to pay attention to the game when you're digging your knees into my back. Sucks to be us, doesn't it?" I stifled my laughter with my hand, and the lady moved away from us with a disgusted look on her face. Fi watched her go with a satisfied expression on her face.

After our unwanted interruption, we settled into an agreeable silence and watched the game. As I sat surrounded by the people I had grown to know as my new family, I reflected on the month that had passed since my parents had left forever. The first week had been rough because it had taken me a few days to recover from my injuries, and Meghan had refused to leave my side. Once Michael had given me the okay to do normal activities, Meghan and I went back to school and settled into a more familiar pattern. We were able to do this because Mrs. Westen had insisted we move in and live with her. I had assumed we would need to move out and find somewhere else to live, but I was thankful to live in a home with a woman as loving as Mrs. Westen.

The changes we had encountered without my parents in our lives were too significant to even think about. I felt so much happier now that I could live my life without having to worry about my sister and I being in constant danger. I had more time to concentrate on my grades, and more time to spend with my sister. I still struggled with the idea that I was basically Meghan's mom and dad, but Michael constantly reassured me that they were there to help. I just needed to learn to accept help when I needed it.

At the end of the game, Meghan ran up to me to give me a hug. "Did you see me hit the ball?"

I smiled and gave Meghan a squeeze. "I sure did! You were great out there, Meg."

Meghan smiled and turned to the rest of the entourage. "Thank you for coming to watch me." I almost blushed at the good manners my little sister was showing.

"Sure thing, kiddo. We wouldn't miss it for the world." Sam gave Meghan a high five.

"Wanna run the bases with me?" She looked longingly at the field. We all looked at each other, and then Michael grabbed Meghan's hand.

"Let's do it! You run to third base first, right?" Michael looked at Meghan with a quizzical look and she laughed.

"No! You run to first base, Michael!" Michael slapped his head like he hadn't known and followed Meghan towards the field. I watched him run around the bases with my sister, and I felt content inside. There was no way I could ever thank Michael enough for what he had done for us, and I hoped he knew how much it meant to me.

I still worried about what the future would bring, and what would become of me and Meghan in a few years, but right now I was happy and that was all that mattered. For the first time in our lives, Meghan and I had people who cared about us, and who were growing to love us. I would never have to worry about facing this world by myself because my new family would be right there beside me.


End file.
